JAMES WATT 

ANDREW CARNI:GIE 



ANDREW CMNEeii 



i GANNOT LEAVE THE LIBRARY. ^ 



^: 






COPYRIGHT DEPO 



^^^^ I 



I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 

i 9-165 §3 



JAMES WATT 



JAMES WATT 



By 

Andrew Carnegie 

Author of " The Empire of Business," 

'* Goipcl of Wealth," " Triumphant Dcmocracjr," 

" American Four-in-Hand in Britain," 

" Round the World," Etc. 




New York 

Doubleday, Page & Company 

1905 









Copyright, 1905, by 
Doubleday, Page & Company 

Published, May, ^1905 



All rights reserved, including that of 
translation — also right of translation 
into the Scandinavian languages. 



(THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two CoDies deceived 

MAY 4 1905 

Copyright Entry 
CLASS (^ XXc No! 
' ca^Y A. 



4 



PREFACE 

When the publishers asked me to write the Life 
of Watt, I declined, stating that my thoughts were 
upon other matters. This settled the question, as I 
supposed, but in this I was mistaken. Why shouldn't 
I write the Life of the maker of the steam-engine, out 
of which I had made fortune? Besides, I knew little 
of the history of the Steam Engine and of Watt him- 
self, and the surest way to obtain knowledge was to 
comply with the publisher's highly complimentary 
request. In short, the subject would not down, and 
finally, I was compelled to write again, telling them 
that the idea haunted me, and if they still desired me 
to undertake it, I should do so with my heart in the task. 

I now know about the steam-engine, and have also 
had revealed to me one of the finest characters that 
ever graced the earth. For all this I am deeply 
grateful to the publishers. 

I am indebted to friends, Messrs. Angus Sinclair and 
Edward R. Cooper, for editing my notes upon Scientific 
and Mechanical points. 

The result is this volume. If the public, in reading, 

have one tithe of the pleasure I have had in writing it, 

I shall be amply rewarded. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS 

Author's Preface v 

CHAPTEK PAGE 

I. Childhood and Youth ..... 3 

II. Glasgow to London — Return to Glasgow . 23 

III. Captured by Steam 45 

IV. Partnership with Roebuck . . . . 67 
V. Boulton Partnership ..... 87 

VI. Removal to Birmingham . . . . 121 

VII. Second Patent 157 

VIII. The Record of the Steam Engine . . 195 

IX. Watt in Old Age 213 

X. Watt, the Inventor and Discoverer . . 223 

XI. Watt, the Man 233 



Childhood and Youth 



CHAPTER I 
Childhood and Youth 

JAMES WATT, bom in Greenock, January 19, 
1736, had the advantage, so highly prized in 
Scotland, of being of good kith and kin. He had 
indeed come from a good nest. His great-grandfather, 
a stem Covenanter, was killed at Bridge of Dee, Sep- 
tember 12, 1644, in one of the battles which Graham of 
Claverhouse fought against the Scotch. He was a 
farmer in Aberdeenshire, and upon his death the 
family was driven out of its homestead and forced to 
leave the district. 

Watt's grandfather, Thomas Watt, was born in 1642, 
and found his way to Crawford's Dyke, then adjoining, 
and now part of, Greenock, where he founded a school 
of mathematics, and taught this branch, and also that 
of navigation, to the fishermen and seamen of the 
locality. That he succeeded in this field in so little 
and poor a community is no small tribute to his 
powers. He was a man of decided ability and great 
natural shrewdness, and very soon began to climb, 
as such men do. The landlord of the district appointed 
him his Baron Bailie, an ofiice which then had important 
judicial fimctions. He rose to high position in the 

3 



4 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

town, being Bailie and Elder, and was highly respected 
and honored. He subsequently purchased a home 
in Greenock and settled there, becoming one of its 
first citizens. Before his death he had established a 
considerable business in odds and ends, such as repair- 
ing and provisioning ships; repairing instruments of 
navigation, compasses, quadrants, etc., always receiv- 
ing special attention at his hands. 

The sturdy son of a sturdy Covenanter, he refused 
to take the test in favor of prelacy (1683), and was 
therefore proclaimed to be "a disorderly school-master 
*' officiating contrary to law." He continued to teach, 
however, and a few years later the Kirk Session of 
Greenock, notwithstanding his contimiacy, found him 
"blameless in life and conversation," and appointed 
him an Elder, which required him to overlook not 
only religious observances, but ' the manners and 
morals of the people. One of the most important of 
these duties was to provide for the education of the 
young, in pursuance of that invaluable injimction of 
John Knox, " that no father, of what estate or condi- 
" tion that ever he may be, use his children at his own 
** fantasie, especially in their youthhood, but all must he 
*' compelled to bring up their children in learning and 
" virtue.'' Here we have, at its very birth, the doctrine 
of compulsory education for all the people, the secret 
of Scotland's progress. Great as was the service 
Knox rendered in the field ecclesiastical, probably 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 5 

what he did for the cause of public education excels it. 
The man who proclaimed that he would never rest 
imtil there was a public school in every parish in Scot- 
land must stand for all time as one of the foremost 
of her benefactors ; probably, in the extent and quality 
of the influence he exerted upon the national character 
through universal compulsory education, the foremost 
of all. 

The very year after Parliament passed the Act of 
1696, which at last fulfilled Knox's aspirations, and 
during the Eldership of Watt's grandfather, Greenock 
made prompt provision for her parish school, in which 
we may be sure the old " teacher of mathematics" did 
not fail to take a prominent part. 

Thomas Watt's son, the father of the great inventor, 
followed in his father's footsteps, after his father's 
death, as shipwright, contractor, provider, etc., be- 
coming famous for his skill in the making of the most 
delicate instruments. He built shops at the back of 
his house, and such were the demands upon him that 
he was able to keep a number of men, sometimes as 
many as fourteen, constantly at work. Like his father, 
he became a man of position and influence in the com- 
munity, and was universally esteemed. Prosperity at- 
tended him until after the birth of his famous son. 
The loss of a valuable ship, succeeded by other mis- 
fortunes, swept away most of the considerable sum 
which he had made, and it was resolved that James 



6 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

would have to be taught a trade, instead of succeeding 
to the business, as had been the intention. 

Fortiinate it was for our subject, and especially so 
for the world, that he was thus favored by falling heir 
to the best heritage of all, as Mr. Morley calls it in his 
address to the Midland Institute—" the necessity at an 
"early age to go forth into the world and work for 
"the means needed for his own support." President 
Garfield's verdict was to the same effect, "The best 
"heritage to which a man can be born is poverty.*' 
The writer's knowledge of the usual effect of the 
heritage of milliondom upon the sons of millionaires 
leads him fully to concur with these high authorities, 
and to believe that it is neither to the rich nor to the 
noble that human society has to look for its preserva- 
tion and improvement, but to those who, like Watt, 
have to labor that they may live, and thus make 
a proper return for what they receive, as working bees, 
not drones, in the social hive. Not from palace or 
castle, but from the cottage have come, or can come, 
the needed leaders of our race, under whose guidance 
it is to ascend. 

We have a fine record in the three generations of the 
Watts, great-grandfather, grandfather and father, all 
able and successful men, whose careers were marked 
by steady progress, growing in usefulness to their 
fellows; men of unblemished character, kind and 
considerate, winning the confidence and affection of 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 7 

their neighbors, and leaving behind them records 
unstained. 

So much for the male branch of the family tree, but 
this is only half. What of that of the grandmothers 
and mothers of the line — equally important? For 
what a Scotch boy born to labor is to become, and 
how, cannot be forecast until we know what his mother 
is, who is to him nurse, servant, governess, teacher 
and saint, all in one. We must look to the Watt 
women as carefully as to the men ; and these fortunately 
we find all that can be desired. His mother was Agnes 
Muirhead, a descendant of the Muirheads of Lachop, 
who date away back before the reign of King David, 
1 1 2 2 . Scott, in his ' ' Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, ' * 
gives us the old ballad of "The Laird of Muirhead," 
who played a great part in these unsettled days. 

The good judgment which characterised the Watts for 
three generations is nowhere more clearly shown than 
in the lady James Watt's father courted and finally 
succeeded in securing for his wife. She is described 
as a gentlewoman of reserved and quiet deportment, 
"esteemed by her neighbours for graces of person as 
" well as of mind and heart, and not less distinguished 
" for her sound sense and good manners than for her 
*' cheerful temper and excellent housewifery." Her 
likeness is thus drawn, and all that we have read 
elsewhere concerning her confirms the truth of the 
portrait. Williamson says that 



8 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

the lady to whom he (Thomas Watt) was early united in marriage 
was Miss Agnes Muirhead, a gentlewoman of good understanding 
and superior endowments, whose excellent management in house- 
hold affairs would seem to have contributed much to the order of 
her establishment, as well as to the every-day happiness of a cheer- 
ful home. She is described as having been a person above common 
in many respects^ of a fine womanly presence, ladylike in appear- 
ance, affecting in domestic arrangements — according to our tra- 
ditions — ^what, it would seem was considered for the time, rather 
a superior style of living. What such a style consisted in, the 
reader shall have the means of judging for himself. One of the 
author's informants on such points more than twenty years ago, a 
venerable lady, then in her eighty-fifth year, was wont to speak 
of the worthy Bailie's wife with much characteristic interest and 
animation. As illustrative of what has just been remarked of the 
internal economy of the family, the old lady related an occasion 
on which she had spent an evening, when a girl, at Mrs. Watt's 
house, and remembered expressing with much ndiveti to her mother, 
on returning home, her childish surprise that "Mrs. Watt had two 
candles lighted on the table!" Among these and other remi- 
niscences of her youth, one venerable informant described James 
Watt's mother, in her eloquent and expressive Doric, as, "a braw, 
braw, woman — ^none now to be seen like her." 

There is another account from a neighbor, who also 
refers to Mrs. Watt as being somewhat of the grand 
lady, but always so kind, so sweet, so helpful to all her 

neighbors. 

The Watt family for generations steadily improved 
and developed. A great step upward was made the 
day Agnes Muirhead was captured. We are liable to 
forget how little of the original strain of an old family 
remains in after days. We glance over the record of the 
Cecils, for instance, to find that the present Marquis 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 9 

has less than one four-thousandth part of the Cecil 
blood; a dozen marriages have each reduced it one- 
half, and the recent restoration of the family to its 
pristine greatness in the person of the late Prime 
Minister, and in his son, the brilliant young Parlia- 
mentarian, of whom great things are predicted already, 
is to be credited equally to the recent infusion into 
the Cecil family of the entirely new blood of two 
successive brides, daughters of commoners who made 
their own way in the world. One was the mother of 
the late statesman, the other his wife and the mother 
of his sons. So with the Watt family, of which we have 
records of three marriages. Our Watt, therefore, had 
but one-eighth of the original Watt strain; seven- 
eighths being that of the three ladies who married 
into the family. Upon the entrance of a gentlewoman 
of Agnes Muirhead's quaHties hung important results, 
for she was a remarkable character with the indefinable 
air of distinction, was well educated, had a yery wise 
head, a very kind heart and all the sensibility and 
enthusiasm of the Celt, easily touched to fine issues. 
She was a Scot of the Scots and a storehouse of border 
lore, as became a daughter of her house, Muirhead of 
Lachop. 

Here, then, we have existing in the quiet village of 
Greenock in 1736, unknown of men, all the favorable 
conditions, the ideal soil, from which might be expected 
to appear such " variation of species " as contained that 



lo LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

rarest of elements, the divine spark we call genius. 
In due time the " variation" made its appearance, now 
known as Watt, the creator of the most potent instru- 
ment of mechanical force known to man. 

The fond mother having lost several of her children 
born previously was intensely solicitous in her care of 
James, who was so delicate that regular attendance at 
school was impossible. The greater part of his school 
years he was confined most of the time to his room. 
This threw him during most of his early years into his 
mo therms company and tender care. Happy chance! 
What teacher, what companionship, to compare 
with that of such a mother! She taught him to read 
most of what he then knew, and, we may be sure, fed 
him on the poetry and romance upon which she herself 
had fed, and for which he became noted in after life. 
He was rated as a backward scholar at school, and his 
education was considered very much neglected. 

Let it not be thought, however, that the lad was not 
being educated in some very important departments. 
The young mind was absorbing, though its acquisitions 
did not count in the school records. Much is revealed 
of his musings and inward development in the account 
of a visit which he paid to his grandmother Muirhead 
in Glasgow, when it was thought that a change would 
benefit the delicate boy. We read with pleasant 
surprise that he had to be sent for, at the request of 
the family, and taken home. He kept the household 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH n 

so stirred up with his stories, recitations and continual 
ebullitions, which so fairly entranced his Grannie and 
Grandpa and the cousins, that the whole household 
economy was disordered. They lost their sleep, for 
** Jamie " held them spellbound night after night with his 
wonderful performances. The shy and contemplative 
youngster who had tramped among the hills, reciting the 
stirring ballads of the border, had found an admiring the 
astonished audience at last, and had let loose upon them. 
To the circle at home he was naturally shy and re- 
served, but to his Grannie, Grandpa, and Cousins, free 
from parental restraint, he could freely deliver his soul. 
His mind was stored with the legends of his country, 
its romance and poetry, and, strong Covenanters as 
were the Watts for generations, tales of the Martyrs were 
not wanting. The heather was on fire within Jamie's 
breast. But where got you all that perferidum Scotorum, 
my wee mannie — that store of precious nutriment that 
is to become part of yourself and remain in the core of 
your being to the end, hallowing and elevating your 
life with ever-increasing power ? Not at the grammar 
school we trow. No school but one can instil that, 
where rules the one best teacher you will ever know, 
genius though you be — the school kept at your mother's 
knee. Such mothers as Watt had are the appointed 
trainers of genius, and make men good and great, if 
the needed spark be there to enkindle: "Kings they 
"make gods, and meaner subjects kings." 



12 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

We have another story of Watt's childhood that 
proclaims the coming man. Precocious children are 
said rarely to develop far in later years, but Watt 
was pre-eminently a precocious child, and of this 
several proofs are related. A friend looking at the 
child of six said to his father, "You ought to 
"send your boy to a public school, and not allow 
"him to trifle away his time at home." "Look how 
"he is occupied before you condemn him,*' said the 
father. He was trying to solve a problem in geometry. 
His mother had taught him drawing, and with this he 
was captivated. A few toys were given him, which 
were constantly in use. Often he took them to pieces, 
and out of the parts sometimes constructed new ones, 
a source of great delight. In this way he employed 
and amused himself in the many long days during 
which he was confined to the house by ill health. 

It is at this stage the steam and kettle story takes its 
rise. Mrs. Campbell, Watt's cousin and constant com- 
panion, recounts, in her memoranda, written in 1798: 

Sitting one evening with his aunt, Mrs. Muirhead, at the tea- 
table, she said: "James Watt, I never saw such an idle boy; take 
a book or employ yourself usefully; for the last hour you have not 
spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle and put it on 
again, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon over the steam, 
watching how it rises from the spout, and catching and connecting 
the drops of hot water it falls into. Are you not ashamed of spend- 
ing your time in this way? " 

To what extent the precocious boy ruminated upon 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 13 

the phenomenon must be left to conjectiire. Enough 
that the story has a soHd foimdation upon which we 
can build. This more than justifies us in classing it 
with " Newton and the Apple," " Bruce and the Spider," 
"Tell and the Apple," "Galvani and the Frog," 
"Volta and the Damp Cloth," "Washington and His 
Little Hatchet," a string of gems, amongst the most 
precious of our legendary possessions. Let no rude 
iconoclast attempt to imdermine one of them. Even 
if they never occurred, it matters Httle. They should 
have occiirred, for they are too good to lose. We 
could part with many of the actual characters of the 
flesh in history without much loss ; banish the imaginary 
host of the spirit and we were poor indeed. So with these 
inspiring legends; let us accept them and add others 
gladly as they arise, inquiring not too curiously into 
their origin. 

While Watt was still in boyhood, his wise father not 
only taught him writing and arithmetic, but also pro- 
vided a set of small tools for him in the shop among 
the workmen — a wise and epoch-making gift, for 
young Watt soon revealed such wonderful manual 
dexterity, and could do such astonishing things, that 
the verdict of one of the workmen, "Jamie has a 
"fortune at his finger-ends," became a common saying 
among them. The most complicated work seemed to 
come naturally to him. One model after another was 
produced to the wonder and delight of his older fellow- 



14 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

workmen. Jamie was the pride of the shop, and no 
doubt of his fond father, who saw with pardonable 
pride that his promising son inherited his own traits, 
and gave bright promise of excelHng as a skilled handi- 
craftsman. 

The mechanical dexterity of the Watts, grandfather, 
father and son, is not to be belittled, for most of the 
mechanical inventions have come from those who have 
been cunning of hand and have worked as manual 
laborers, generally in charge of the machinery or 
devices which they have improved. When new pro- 
cesses have been invented, these also have usually 
suggested themselves to the able workmen as they 
experienced the crudeness of existing methods. In- 
deed, few important inventions have come from those 
who have not been thus employed. It is with inventors 
as with poets ; few have been born to the purple or with 
silver spoons in their mouths, and we shall plainly see 
later on that had it not been for Watt's inherited and 
acquired manual dexterity, it is probable that the 
steam engine could never have been perfected, so 
often did failure of experiments arise solely because 
it was in that day impossible to find men capable of 
executing the plans of the inventor. His problem was 
to teach them by example how to obtain the exact 
work required when the tools of precision of our day 
were unknown and the men themselves were only 
workmen of the crudest kind. Many of the most 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 15 

delicate parts, even of working engines, passed through 
Watt's own hands, and for most of his experimental 
devices he had himself to make the models. Never 
was there an inventor who had such reason to thank 
fortune that in his youth he had learned to work with 
his hands. It proved literally true, as his fellow- 
workmen in the shop predicted, that " Jamie's fortune 
was at his finger-ends." 

As before stated, he proved a backward scholar for 
a time, at the grammar school. No one seems to have 
divined the latent powers smoldering within. Latin 
and Greek classics moved him not, for his mind was 
stored with more entrancing classics learned at his 
mother's knee: his heroes were of nobler mould than 
the Greek demigods, and the story of his own romantic 
land more fruitful than that of any other of the past. 
Busy working man has not time to draw his inspi- 
ration from more than one national literature. Nor 
has any man yet drawn fully from any but that of 
his native tongue. We can no more draw our mental 
sustenance from two languages than we can think in 
two. Man can have but one deep source from whence 
come healing waters, as he can have but one mother 
tongue. So it was with Watt. He had Scotland and 
that sufficed. When the boy absorbs, or rather is 
absorbed by, Wallace, The Bruce, and Sir John 
Grahame, is fired by the story of the Martyrs, has at 
heart page after page of the country's ballads, and 



i6 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

also, in more recent times, is at home with Burns' and 
Scott's prose and poetry, he has httle room and less 
desire, and still less need, for inferior heroes. So the 
dead languages and their semi-supernatural, quarrel- 
some, self-seeking heroes passed in review without 
gaining admittance to the soul of Watt. But the spare 
that fired him came at^~last — Mathematics. " Happy is 
" the man who has found his work," says Carlyle. Watt 
found his when yet a boy at school. Thereafter never 
a doubt existed as to the field of his labors. The 
choice of an occupation is a serious matter with most 
young men. There was never room for any question 
of choice with yoimg Watt. The occupation had 
chosen him, as is the case with genius. " Talent does 
" what it can, genius what it must. " When the goddess 
lays her hand upon a mortal dedicated to her shrine, 
concentration is the inevitable result ; there is no room 
for anything which does not contribute to her service, 
or rather all things are made contributory to it, and 
nothing that the devotee sees or reads, hears or feels, 
but some way or other is made to yield sustenance for 
the one great, overmastering task. "The gods send 
"thread for a web begun," because the web absoibs 
everything that comes within reach. So it proved 
with Watt. 

At fifteen, he had twice carefully read " The Ele- 
*'ments of Philosophy" (Gravesend), and had made 
numerous chemical experiments, repeating them again 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 17 

and again, until satisfied of their accuracy. A small 
electrical machine was one of his productions with 
which he startled his companions. Visits to his tmcle 
Muirhead at Glasgow were frequent, and here he 
formed acquaintance with several educated yoimg 
men, who appreciated his abilities and kindly nature ; 
but the visits to the same kind tmcle "on the bonnie, 
"bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond," where the simimer 
months were spent, gave the youth his happiest days. 
Indefatigable in habits of observation and research, 
and devoted to the lonely hills, he extended his knowl- 
edge by long excursions, adding to his botanical and 
mineral treasures. Freely entering the cottages of 
the people, he spent hours learning their traditions, 
superstitions, ballads, and all the Celtic lore. He 
loved nature in her wildest moods, and was a true child 
of the mist, brimful of poetry and romance, which 
he was ever ready to shower upon his friends. An 
omniverous reader, in after life he vindicated his prac- 
tice of reading every book he found, alleging that he had 
" never yet read a book or conversed with a companion 
"without gaining information, instruction or amuse- 
"ment.** Scott has left on record that he never had 
met and conversed with a man who could not tell him 
something he did not know. Watt seems to have 
resembled Sir Walter, "who spoke to every man he 
"met as if he were a brother" — as indeed he was — one 
of the many fine traits of that noble, wholesome char- 



i8 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

acter. These two foremost Scots, each supreme in 
his sphere, seem to have had many social traits in com- 
mon, and both that fine faculty of attracting others. 

The only "sport" of the youth was angling, "the 
"most fitting practice for quiet men and lovers of 
"peace," the "Brothers of the Angle," according to 
Izaak Walton, "being mostly men of mild and gentle 
"disposition." From the ruder athletic games of the 
school he was debarred, not being robust, and this was 
a constant source of morbid misery to him, entailing 
as it did separation from the other boys. The prose- 
cution of his favorite geometry now occupied his 
thoughts and time, and astronomy also became a 
fascinating study. Long hours were often spent, lying 
on his back in a grove near his home, studying the 
stars by night and the clouds by day. 

Watt met his first irreparable loss in 1753, when his 
mother suddenly died. The relations between them had 
been such as are only possible between mother and son. 
Often had the mother said to her intimates that she 
had been enabled to bear the loss of her daughter only 
by the love and care of her dutiful son. Home was 
home no longer for Jamie, and we are not surprised to 
find him leaving it soon after she who had been to him 
the light and leading of his life had passed out of it. 

Watt now reached his seventeenth year. His 
father's affairs were greatly embarrassed. It was 
clearly seen that the two brothers, John and James, had 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 19 

to rely for their support upon their own unaided 
efforts. John, the elder, some time before this had 
taken to the sea and been shipwrecked, leaving only 
James at home. Of course, there was no question 
as to the career he would adopt. His fortune " lay at 
" his fingers' ends," and accordingly he resolved at once 
to qualify himself for the trade of a mathematical in- 
strument maker, the career which led him directly in 
the pathway of mathematics and mechanical science, 
and enabled him to gratify his unquenchable thirst 
for knowledge thereof. 

Naturally Glasgow was decided upon as the proper 
place in which to begin, and Watt took up his abode 
there with his maternal relatives, the Muirheads, carry- 
ing his tools with him. 

No mathematical instnmient maker was to be found 
in Glasgow, but Watt entered the service of a kind of 
jack-of -all-trades, who called himself an " optician ** and 
sold and mended spectacles, repaired fiddles, tuned 
spinets, made fishing-rods and tackle, etc. Watt, as 
a devoted brother of the angle, was an adept at dress- 
ing trout and salmon flies, and handy at so many 
things that he proved most useful to his employer, but 
there was nothing to be learned by the ambitious 
youth. 

His most intimate schoolfellow was Andrew Ander- 
son, whose elder brother, John Anderson, was the well- 
known Professor of natural philosophy, the first to 



20 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

open classes for the instruction of working-men in its 
principles. He bequeathed his property to found an 
institution for this purpose, which is now a college 
of the university. The Professor came to know young 
Watt through his brother, and Watt became a frequent 
visitor at his house. He was given imrestricted access 
to the Professor's valuable library, in which he spent 
many of his evenings. 

One of the chief advantages of the public school 
is the enduring friendships boys form there, first 
in importance through their beneficial influence 
upon character, and, second, as aids to success in 
after life. The writer has been impressed by this 
feature, for great is the ntmiber of instances he has 
known where the prized working-boy or man in 
position has been able, as additional force was required, 
to say the needed word of recommendation, which 
gave a start or a lift upward to a dearly-cherished 
schoolfellow. It seems a grave mistake for parents 
not to educate their sons in the region of home, or in 
later years in colleges and universities of their own 
land, so that early friendships may not be broken, but 
grow closer with the years. Watt at all events was 
fortunate in this respect. His schoolmate, Andrew 
Anderson, brought into his life the noted Professor, 
with all his knowledge, kindness and influence, and 
opened to him the kind of library he most needed. 



Glasgow to London — Return to 

Glasgow 



CHAPTER II 
Glasgow to London — ^Return to Glasgow 

THROUGH Professor Muirhead, a kinsman of 
Watt's mother, he was introduced to many others 
of the faculty of the university, and, as usual, attracted 
their attention, especially that of Dr. Dick, Professor of 
natural philosophy, who strongly advised him to proceed 
to London, where he could receive better instruction 
than it was possible to obtain in Scotland at that time. 
The kind Professor, diviner of latent genius, went so 
far as to give him a personal introduction, which proved 
efficient. How true it is that the worthy, aspiring 
youth rarely goes unrecognised or unaided. Men with 
kind hearts, wise heads, and influence strong to aid, 
stand ready at every turn to take modest merit by the 
hand and give it the only aid needed, opportunity to 
speak, through results, for itself. So London was de- 
termined upon. Fortunately, a distant relative of the 
Watt family, a sea-captain, was about to set forth upon 
that then long and toilsome journey. They started 
from Glasgow Jime 7, 1755, on horseback, the journey 
taking twelve days. 

The writer's parents often referred to the fact that 
when the leading linen manufacturer of Dtmfermline 

23 



24 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

was about to take the journey to London — the only 
man in the town then who ever did — special prayers 
were always said in church for his safety. 

The member of Parliament in Watt's day from the 
extreme north of Scotland would have consumed 
nearly twice twelve days to reach Westminster. To- 
day if the capital of the English-speaking race were in 
America, which Lord Roseberry says he is willing it 
should be, if thereby the union of our English-spealdng 
race were secured, the members of the Great Council 
from Britain could reach Washington in seven days, 
the members from British Columbia and California, 
upon the Pacific, in five days, both land and sea routes 
soon to be much quickened. 

Those sanguine prophets who predict the reunion of 
our race on both sides of the Atlantic can at least aver 
that in view of the union of Scotland and England, the 
element of time required to traverse distances to and 
from the capital is no obstacle, since the most distant 
points of the new empire, Britain in the east and British 
Columbia and California in the west, would be reached 
in less than one-third the time required to travel from 
the north of Scotland to London at the time of the 
union. Besides, the telegraph to-day binds the parts 
together, keeping all citizens informed, and stirring 
their hearts simultaneously thousands of miles apart 
— Glasgow to London, 1755, twelve days; 1905, eight 
hours. Thus under the genius Steam, tamed and 



GLASGOW TO LONDON 25 

harnessed by Watt, the world shrinks into a neighbor- 
hood, giving some countenance to the dreamers who 
may perchance be proclaiming a coming reality. We 
may continue, therefore, to indulge the hope of the 
coming "parliament of man, the federation of the 
"world," or even the older and wider prophecy of 
Burns, that, " It's coming yet for a' that, when man 
"to man the world o'er, shall brithers be for a* that." 

There comes to mind that jewel we owe to Plato, 
which surely ranks as one of the most precious of all 
our treasures: "We should lure ourselves as with 
"enchantments, for the hope is great and the 
"reward is noble." So with this enchanting dream, 
better than most realities, even if it be all a 
dream. Let the dreamers therefore dream on. The 
world, minus enchanting dreams, would be com- 
monplace indeed, and let us remember this dream is 
only dreamable because Watt's steam engine is a 
reality. 

After his twelve days on horseback, Watt arrived in 
London, a stranger in a strange land, unknowing and 
unknown. But the fates had been kind for, burdened 
with neither wealth nor rank, this poor would-be 
skilled mechanic was to have a fair chance by beginning 
at the bottom among his fellows, the sternest yet 
finest of all schools to call forth and strengthen inherent 
qualities, and impel a poor young man to put forth his 
utmost effort when launched upon the sea of life, where 



26 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

he must either sink or swim, no bladders being in re- 
serve for him. 

Our young hero rose to the occasion and soon proved 
that, Caesar-Hke, he could " stem the waves with heart 
"of controversy." Thus the rude school of experience 
calls forth and strengthens the latent qualities of youth, 
implants others, and forms the indomitable man, fit 
to endure and overcome. Here, for the first time, 
alone in swarming London, not one relative, not one 
friend, not even an acquaintance, except the kind 
sea-captain, challenged by the cold world around to 
do or die, fate called to Watt as it calls to every man 
who has his own way to make : 

"This is CoUingtogle ford, 

"And thou must keep thee with thy sword." 

When the revelation first rushes upon a youth, hith- 
erto directed by his parents, that, boy no more, he must 
act for himself, presto ! change ! he is a man, he has at 
last found himself. The supreme test, which proves 
the man, can come in all its winnowing force only to 
those born to earn their own support by training 
themselves to be able to render to society services which 
command return. This training compels the develop- 
ment of powers which otherwise would probabl}'- lie 
dormant. Scotch boy as Watt was to the core, with 
the lowland broad, soft accent, and ignorant of foreign 
literature, it is very certain that he then found support 



GLASGOW TO LONDON 27 

in the lessons instilled at his mother's knee. He had 
been fed on Wallace and Bruce, and when things looked 
darkest, even in very early years, his national hero, 
Wallace, came to mind, and his struggles against fearful 
odds, not for selfish ends, but for his country's inde- 
pendence. Did Wallace give up the fight, or ever 
think of giving up? Never! It was death or victory. 
Bruce and the spider! Did Bruce falter? Never! 
Neither would he. " Scots wa hae, " " Let us do or die, ' * 
implanted before his teens, has pulled many a Scottish 
boy through the crises of life when all was dark, as it 
will pull others yet to come. Altho Burns and Scott had 
yet to appear, to crystallise Scotland's characteristics 
and plant the talismanic words into the hearts of young 
Scots, Watt had a copious supply of the national senti- 
ment, to give him the "stout heart for the stye brae," 
when manhood arrived. His mother had planted 
deep in him, and nurtured, precious seed from her 
Celtic garden, which was sure to grow and bear good 
fruit. 

We are often met with the question, " What is the best 
" possible safeguard for a young man, who goes forth 
" from a pure home, to meet the temptations that beset 
** his path?" Various answers are given, but, speaking 
that as a Scot, reared as Watt was, the writer believes 
all the suggested safeguards combined scarcely weigh 
as much as preventives against disgracing himself as 
the thought that it would not be only himself he would 



28 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

disgrace, but that he would also bring disgrace upon his 
family, and would cause father, mother, sister and 
brother to hang their heads among their neighbors 
in secluded village, on far-away moor or in lonely glen. 
The Scotch have strong traces of the Chinese and 
Japanese religious devotion to "the family," and the 
filial instinct is intensely strong. The fall of one 
member is the disgrace of all. Even although Watt's 
mother had passed, there remained the venerated 
father in Greenock, and the letters regularly written 
to him, some of which have fortunately been preserved, 
abundantly prove that, tho far from home, yet in 
home and family ties and family duties the young 
man had his strong tower of defence, keeping him from 
" all sense of sin or shame. ' ' Watt never gave his father 
reason for one anxious thought that he would in any 
respect discredit the good name of his forbears. 

Many London shops were visited, but the rules of 
the trade, requiring apprentices to serve for seven 
years, or, being journeymen, to have served that time, 
proved an insuperable obstacle to Watt's being em- 
ployed. His plan was to fit himself by a year's steady 
work for return to Glasgow, there to begin on his own 
account. He had not seven years to spend learning 
what he could learn in one. He would be his own 
master. Wise young man in this he was. There is 
not much outcome in the youth who does not already 
see himself captain in his dreams, and steers his barque 



GLASGOW TO LONDON 29 

accordingly, true to the course already laid down, not 
to be departed from, under any stress of weather. 
We see the kind of stuff this young Scotch lad was made 
of in the tenacity with which he held to his plan. At 
last some specimens of his work having seemed very 
remarkable to Mr. John Morgan, mathematical in- 
stnmient maker. Finch Lane, Cornhill, he agreed to 
give the conquering young man the desired year's 
instructions for his services and a premium of twenty 
pounds, whereupon the plucky fellow who had kept 
to his course and made port, wrote to his father of his 
success, praising his master '' as being of as good char- 
acter, both for accuracy in his business, and good 
morals, as any of his way in London." The order in 
which this aspiring young man of the world records the 
virtues will not be overlooked. He then adds, "If it 
" had not been for Mr. Short, I could not have got a 
**man in London that would have undertaken to 
" teach me, as I now find there are not above five or six 
"who could have taught me all I wanted." 

Mr, Short was the gentleman to whom Professor 
Dick's letter of introduction was addressed, who, 
no more than the Professor himself, nor Mr. Morgan, 
could withstand the extraordinary youth, whom he 
could not refuse taking into his service — glad to get 
him no doubt, and delighted that he was privileged to 
instruct one so likely to redound to his credit in after 
years. Thus Watt made his start in London, the 



30 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

twenty pounds premium being duly remitted from 
home. 

Up to this time, Watt had been a charge on his 
father, but it was very small, for he lived in the 
most frugal style at a cost of only two dollars per 
week. In one of his letters to his father he regrets 
being unable to reduce it below that, knowing that his 
father's affairs were not prosperous. He, however, was 
able to obtain some remunerative work on his own 
account, which he did after his day's task was over, and 
soon made his position secure as a workman. Special- 
isation he met with for the first time, and he expresses 
surprise that " very few here know any more than how to 
**make a rule, others a pair of dividers, and suchlike." 
Here we see that even at that early day division of 
labor had won its way in London, though yet unknown 
in the country. The jack-of -all-trades, the handy- 
man, who can do everything, gives place to the special- 
ist who confines himself to one thing in which practice 
makes him perfect. Watt's mission saved him from 
this, for to succeed he had to be master, not of one 
process, but of all. Hence we find him first making 
brass scales, parallel-rulers and quadrants. By the 
end of one month in this department he was able 
to finish a Hadley quadrant. From this he proceeded 
to azimuth compasses, brass sectors, theodolites, and 
other delicate instruments. Before his year was 
finished he wrote his father that he had made " a brass 



GLASGOW TO LONDON 31 

" sector with a French joint, which is reckoned as nice a 
*' piece of framing-work as is in the trade," and expressed 
the hope that he would soon now be able to support 
himself and be no longer a charge upon him. 

It is highly probable that this first tool finished by 
his own hands brought to Watt more unalloyed 
pleasure than any of his greater triimiphs of later 
years, just as the first week's wages of youth, money 
earned by service rendered, proclaiming coming man- 
hood, brings with it a thrill and glow of proud satis- 
faction, compared with which all the millions of later 
years are as dross. 

Writers upon labor, who have never labored, generally 
make the profound mistake of considering labor as one 
solid mass, when the truth is that it contains orders 
and degrees as distinct as those in aristocracy. The 
workman skilled beyond his fellows, who is called upon 
by his superintendent to undertake the difficult job in 
emergencies, ranks high, and probably enjoys an hon- 
orable title, a pet name conferred by his shopmates. 
Men measure each other as correctly in the workshop 
as in the professions, and each has his deserved rank. 
When the right man is promoted, they rally round and 
enable him to perform wonders. Where favoritism 
or poor judgment is shown, the reverse occurs, and there 
is apathy and dissatisfaction, leading to poor results 
and serious trouble. The manual worker is as proud 
of his work, and rightly so, as men are in other voca- 



32 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

tions. His life and thought centre in the shop as those 
of members of Congress or Parhament centre in the 
House; and triumph for him in the shop, his world, 
means exactly the same to him, and appears not 
less important to his family and friends than what 
leadership is to the public man, or in any of the pro- 
fessions. He has all their pride of profession, and less 
vanity than most. 

How far this "pride of profession" extends is well 
illustrated by the Pittsburgh story of the street scrapers 
at their noon repast. MacCarthy, recently deceased, 
was the subject of eulogy, one going so far as to assert 
that he was " the best man that ever scraped a hoe on 
"Liberty Street." To this, one who had aspirations 
" allowed Mac was a good enough man on plain work, 
"but around the gas-posts he wasn't worth a cent." 

A public character, stopping over night with a 
friend in the coimtry, the maid-of-all-work tells her 
mistress, after the guest departs, " I have read so 
"much about him, never expecting to see him; little 
"did I think I should have the honor of brushing 
"his boots this morning." Happy girl in her work, 
knowing that all service is honorable. Even shoe- 
blacking, we see, has its rewards. 

A Highland laird and lady, visiting some of their 
crofters on the moors, are met and escorted by a 
delighted wife to her cot. The children and the 
husband are duly presented. At an opportune moment 



GLASGOW TO LONDON 33 

the proud wife cannot refrain from informing her 
visitors that "it was Donald himsel' the laird had to 
" send for to thatch the pretty golf -house at the Castle. 
"Donald did all that himsel'," with an admiring 
glance cast at the embarrassed great man. Donald 
" sent for by the laird at the Castle " ranks in Donald's 
circle and in Donald's own heart with the honor 
of being sent for by His Majesty to govern the empire 
in Mr. Balfour's circle and in Mr. Balfour's own heart. 
Ten to one the proud Highland crofter and his circle 
reap more genuine, unalloyed satisfaction from the 
message than the lowland statesman and his circle 
could reap from his. But it made Balfour famous, 
you say. So was Donald made famous, his circle 
not quite so wide as that of his colleague — that is all. 
Donald is as much "uplifted" as the Prime Minister; 
probably more so. Thus is himian nature ever the 
same down to the roots. Many distinctions, few 
differences in life. We are all kin, members of the 
one family, playing with different toys. 

So deep down into the ranks of labor goes the salt 
of pride of profession, preventing rot and keeping all 
fresh in the main, because on the humblest of the 
workers there shines the bright ray of hope of recog- 
nition and advancement, progress and success. As 
long as this vista is seen stretching before all is well 
with labor. There will be friction, of course, between 
capital and labor, but it will be healthy friction, 



34 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

needed by, and good for, both. There is the higgling 
of the market in all business. As long as this valuable 
quality of honest pride in one's work exists, and finds 
deserved recognition, society has nothing to fear from 
the ranks of labor. Those who have had most ex- 
perience with it, and know its qualities and its failings 
best, have no fear ; on the contrary, they know that at 
heart labor is sound, and only needs considerate 
treatment. The kindly personal attention of the 
employer will be found far more appreciated than 
even a rise in wages. 

Enforced confinement and unremitting labor soon 
told upon Watt's delicate constitution, yet he perse- 
vered with the self-imposed extra work, which brought 
in a little honest money and reduced the remittances 
from home. He caught a severe cold during the winter 
and was afflicted by a racking cough and severe rheu- 
matic pains. With his father's sanction, he decided 
to return home to recuperate, taking good care how- 
ever, forehanded as he always proved himself, to secure 
some new and valuable tools and a stock of materials 
to make many others, which " he knew he must make 
"himself." A few valuable books were not for- 
gotten, among them Bion's work on the '' Construction 
** and Use of Mathematical Instruments " — ^nothing per- 
taining to his craft but he would know. King he would 
be in that, so everything was made to revolve around it. 
That was the foundation upon which he had to build. 



RETURN TO GLASGOW 35 

To the old home in Scotland our hero's face was now 
turned in the autumn of 1756, his twentieth year. His 
native air, best medicine of all for the invalid exile, 
soon restored his health, and to Glasgow he then went, 
in pursuance of his plan of life early laid down, to begin 
business on his own account. He thus became master 
before he was man. There was not in all Scotland a 
mathematical instrument maker, and here was one 
of the very best begging permission to establish him- 
self in Glasgow. As in London so in Glasgow, how- 
ever, the rules of the Guild of Hammermen, to which 
it was decided a mathematical instrument maker 
would belong, if one of such high calling made his 
appearance, prevented Watt from entrance if he had 
not consumed seven years in learning the trade. He 
had mastered it in one, and was ready to demonstrate 
his ability to excel by any kind of test proposed. Watt 
had entered in properly by the door of knowledge and 
experience of the craft, the only door through which 
entrance was possible, but he had travelled too quickly; 
besides he was " neither the son of a burgess, nor had 
"he served an apprenticeship in the borough," and this 
was conclusive. How the world has travelled onward 
since those days ! and yet our day is likely to be in as 
great contrast a hvmdred and fifty years hence. Pro- 
tective tariffs between nations, and probably wars, may 
then seem as strangely absurd as the hammermen's 
rules. Even in 1905 we have still a far road to travel. 



36 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

Failing in his efforts to establish himself in business, 
he asked the guild to permit him to rent and use a 
small workshop to make experiments, but even this 
was refused. We are disposed to wonder at this, but 
it was in strict accordance with the spirit of the times. 

When the sky was darkest, the clouds broke and 
revealed the university as his guardian angel. Dr. 
Dick, Professor of natural philosophy, knowing of 
Watt's skill from his first start in Glasgow, had already 
employed him to repair some mathematical instruments 
bequeathed to the university by a Scotch gentleman in 
the West Indies, and the work had been well done, at 
a cost of five pounds — the first contract money 
ever earned by Watt in Glasgow. Good work always 
tells. Ability cannot be kept down forever ; if crushed to 
earth, it rises again. So Watt's "good work" brought 
the Professors to his aid, several of whom he had met 
and impressed most favorably during its progress. 
The university charter, gift of the Pope in 1451, gave 
absolute authority within the area of its buildings, 
and the Professors resolved to give our hero shelter 
there — the best day's work they ever did. May they 
ever be remembered for this with feelings of deepest 
gratitude. What men these were! The venerable 
Anderson has already been spoken of; Adam Smith, 
who did for the science of economics what Watt did for 
steam, was one of Watt's dearest friends ; Black, dis- 
coverer of latent heat; Robinson, Dick of whom we 



RETURN TO GLASGOW 37 

have spoken, and others. Such were the world's 

benefactors, who resolved to take Watt under their 

protection, and thus enabled him to do his appointed 

work. Glorious university, this of Glasgow, protector 

and nurse of Watt, probably of all its decisions this 
has been of the greatest service to man! 

There are universities and universities. Glasgow's 
peculiar claim to regard lies in the perfect equality of 
the various schools, the humanities not neglected, the 
sciences appreciated, neither accorded precedence. Its 
scientific Professor, Thompson, now Lord Kelvin, was 
recently elevated to the Lord Chancellorship, the 
highest honor in its power to bestow. 

Every important university develops special qual- 
ities of its own, for which it is noted. That of Glasgow 
is renowned for devotion to the scientific field. What 
a record is hers I Protector of Watt, going to extreme 
measures necessary, not alone to shelter him, but to 
enable him to labor within its walls and support himself ; 
first university to establish an engineering school and 
professorship of engineering; first to estabHsh a chem- 
ical teaching laboratory for students; first to have a 
physical laboratory for the exercise and instruction of 
students in experimental work; nursery from which 
came the steam engine of Watt, the discovery of latent 
heat by its Professor Black, and the successful opera- 
tion of telegraph cables by its Professor and present 
Lord Chancellor (Lord Kelvin). May the future of 



38 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

Glasgow University copy fair her glorious past! Her 
"atmosphere'* favors and stimulates steady, fruitful 
work. At all Scottish, as at all American universities, 
we may rejoice that there is always found a large num- 
ber of the most distinguished students, who, figu- 
ratively speaking, cultivate knowledge upon a little 
oatmeal, earning money between terms to pay their 
way. It is highly probable that a greater propor- 
tion of these will be heard from in later years than of 
any other class. 

American universities have, fortunately, followed 
the Glasgow model, and are giving more attention 
to the hitherto much neglected needs of science, 
and the practical departments of education, making 
themselves real universities, "where any man can 
"study everything worth studying." 

A room was assigned to Watt, only about twenty 
feet square, but it served him as it has done others 
since for great work. When the well-known author, 
Dr. Smiles, visited the room, he found in it the galvanic 
apparatus employed by Professor Thompson (Lord 
Kelvin) for perfecting his delicate invention which 
rendered ocean cables effective. 

The kind and wise Professors did not stop here. They 
went pretty far, one cannot but think, when they 
took the next step in Watt's behalf, giving him a 
small room, which could be made accessible to the 
public, and this he was at liberty to open as a shop for 



RETURN TO GLASGOW 39 

the sale of his instruments, for Watt had to make a 
living by his handiwork. Strange work this for a 
university, especially in those days ; but our readers, we 
are sure, will heartily approve the last, as they have no 
doubt approved the first action of the faculty in favor 
of struggling genius. Business was not prosperous at 
first with Watt, his instruments proving slow of sale. 
Of quadrants he could make three per week with the 
help of a lad, at a profit of forty shillings, but as sea- 
going ships could not then reach Glasgow, few could be 
sold. A supply was sent to Greenock, then the port 
of Glasgow, and sold by his father. He was reduced, 
as the greatest artists have often been, to the necessity 
of making what are known as "pot-boilers." Follow- 
ing the example of his first master in Glasgow he made 
spectacles, fiddles, flutes, guitars, and, of course, flies 
and fishing-tackle, and, as the record tells, "many dis- 
" located violins, fractured guitars, fiddles also, if in- 
" treated, did he mend with good approbation." Such 
were his "pot-boilers" that met the situation. 

His friend, Professor Black, who, like Professor Dick, 
had known of Watt's talent, one day asked him if he 
couldn*t make an organ for him. By this time. Watt's 
reputation had begun to spread, and it finally carried 
him to the height of passing among his associates as 
" one who knew most things and could make anything." 
Watt knew nothing about organs, but he immediately 
undertook the work (1762), and the result was an in- 



40 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

disputable success that led to his constructing, for a 
mason's lodge in Glasgow, a larger ''finger organ," 
** which elicited the surprise and admiration of musi- 
" cians. ' ' This extraordinary man improved everything 
he touched. For his second organ he devised a num- 
ber of novelties, a sustained monochord, indicators 
and regulators of the blast, means for tuning to any 
system, contrivances for improving the stops, etc. 

Lest we are led into a sad mistake here, let us stop 
a moment to consider how Watt so easily accomplished 
wonders, as if by inspiration. In all history it may 
be doubted whether success can be traced more clearly 
to long and careful preparation than in Watt's case. 
When we investigate, for instance, this seeming sleight- 
of-hand triumph with the organs, we find that upon 
agreeing to make the first. Watt immediately devoted 
himself to a study of the laws of harmony, making 
science supplement his lack of the musical ear. As 
usual, the study was exhaustive. Of course he 
found and took for guide the highest authority, a 
profound, but obscure book by Professor Smith of 
Cambridge University, and, mark this, he first made 
a model of the forthcoming organ. It is safe to say 
that there was not then a man in Britain who knew 
more of the science of music and was more thoroughly 
prepared to excel in the art of making organs than the 
new organ-builder. 

When he attacked the problem of steam, as we shall 



RETURN TO GLASGOW 41 

soon see, the same course was followed, although it 
involved the mastering of three languages, that he 
should miss nothing. 

We note that the taking of infinite pains, this 
fore-arming of himself, this knowing of everything 
that was to be known, the note of thorough preparation 
in Watt's career, is ever conspicuous. The best proof 
that he was a man of true genius is that he first made 
himself master of all knowledge bearing upon his 
tasks. 

Watt could not have been more happily situated. 
His surroundings were ideal, the resources of the 
university were at his disposal, and, being conveniently 
situated, his workshop soon became the rendezvous of 
the faculty. He thus enjoyed the constant intimate 
companionship of one of the most distinguished bodies 
of educated men of science in the world. Glasgow 
was favored in her faculty those days as now. Two 
at least of Watt's closest friends, the discoverer of 
latent heat, and the author of the " Wealth of Nations," 
won enduring fame. Others were eminent. He did 
not fail to realise his advantages, and has left several 
acknowledgments of his debt to "those who were all 
" much my superiors, I never having attended a college 
" and being then but a mechanic. " His so-called supe- 
riors did not quite see it in this light, as they have 
abundantly testified, but the modesty of Watt was 
ever conspicuous all through his life. 



42 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

Watt led a busy life, the time not spent upon the 
indispensable "pot-boilers" being fully occupied in 
severe studies ; chemistry, mathematics and mechanics 
all received attention. What he was finally to become 
no one could so far predict, but his associates expected 
something great from one who had so deeply impressed 
them. 

Robison (afterwards Professor of natural history 
in Edinbiirgh University), being nearer Watt's age 
than the others, became his most intimate friend. 
His introduction to Watt, in 1758, has been described 
by himself. After feasting his eyes on the beautifully 
finished instruments in his shop, Robison entered into 
conversation with him. Expecting to find only a 
workman, he was surprised to find a philosopher. 
Says Robison: 

I had the vanity to think myself a pretty good proficient in my 
favorite study (mathematical and mechanical philosophy), and 
was rather mortified at finding Mr. Watt so much my superior. 
But his own high relish for those things made him pleased with 
the chat of any person who had the same tastes with himself ; or 
his innate complaisance made him indulge my curiosity, and even 
encourage my endeavors to form a more intimate acquaintance 
with him. I lounged much about him, and, I doubt not, was 
frequently teasing him. Thus our acquaintance began. 



Captured by Steam 



CHAPTER III 

Captured by Steam 

THE supreme hour of Watt's life was now about 
to strike. He had become deeply interested in 
the subject of steam, to which Professor Robison had 
called his attention, Robison being then in his twentieth 
year. Watt three years older. 

Robison's idea was that steam might be applied to 
wheel carriages. Watt admitted his ignorance of 
steam then. Nevertheless, he made a model of a 
wheel carriage with two cylinders of tin plate, but 
being slightly and inaccurately made, it failed to work 
satisfactorily. Nothing more was heard of it. Robison 
soon thereafter left Glasgow. The demon Steam con- 
tinued to haunt Watt. He, who up to this time had 
never seen even a model of a steam engine, strangely 
discovered in his researches that the university actually 
owned a model of the latest type, the Newcomen 
engine, which had been purchased for the use of the 
natural philosophy class. One wonders how many 
of the universities in Britain had been so progressive. 
That of Glasgow seems to have recognised at an early 
day the importance of science, in which department 
she continues famous. The coveted and now histor- 

45 



46 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

ical model had been sent to London for repairs. Watt 
urged its prompt return and a sum of money was voted 
for this purpose. Watt was at last completely absorbed 
in the subject of steam. He read all that had been 
written on the subject. Most of the valuable matter 
those days was in French and Italian, of which there 
were no translations. Watt promptly began to ac- 
quire these languages, that he might know all that was 
to be known. He could not await the coming of the 
model, which did not arrive until 1763, and began his 
own experiments in 1761. How did he obtain the 
necessary appliances and apparatus, one asks. The 
answer is easy. He made them. Apothecaries* vials 
were his steam boilers, and hollo wed-out canes his 
steam-pipes. Numerous experiments followed and 
much was learnt. Watt's accotmt of these is appended 
to the article on "Steam and the Steam Engine" in 
the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," ninth edition. 

Detailed accounts of Watt's numerous experiments, 
failures, difficulties, disappointments, and successes, as 
one after the other obstacles were stirmounted, is not 
within the scope of this volimie, these being all easily 
accessible to the student, but the general reader may 
be interested in the most important of all the triimiphs 
of the indefatigable worker — the keystone of the arch. 
The Newcomen model arrived at last and was promptly 
repaired, but was not successful when put in operation. 
Steam enough could not be obtained, although the 



CAPTURED BY STEAM 47 

boiler seemed of ample capacity. The fire was urged by 
blowing and more steam generated, and still it would 
not work; a few strokes of the piston and the engine 
stopped. Smiles says that exactly at the point when 
ordinary experimentalists would have abandoned the 
task, Watt became thoroughly aroused. "Every ob- 
" stacle," says Professor Robison," was to him the begin- 
" ning of a new and serious study, and I knew he would 
" not quit it until he had either discovered its worthless- 
" ness or had made something of it. ' ' The difficulty here 
was serious. Books were searched in vain. No one 
had touched it. A course of independent experiments 
was essential, and upon this he entered as usual, deter- 
mined to find truth at the bottom of the well and to 
get there in his own way. Here he came upon the 
fact which led him to the stupendous result. That 
fact was the existence of latent heat, the original dis- 
coverer of which was Watt's intimate friend. Professor 
Black. Watt found that water converted into steam 
heated five times its own weight of water to steam 
heat. He says : 

Being struck with this remarkable fact (effect of latent heat), 
and not understanding the reason of it, I mentioned it to my friend, 
Dr. Black, who then explained to me his doctrine of latent heat, 
which he had taught some time before this period (1764); but 
having myself been occupied with the pursuits of business, if I had 
heard of it I had not attended to it, when I thus stumbled upon 
one of the material facts by which that beautiful theory is sup- 
ported. 



48 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

Here we have an instance of two men in the same 
university, discovering latent heat, one wholly ignorant 
of the other's doings ; fortunately, the later discoverer 
only too glad to acknowledge and applaud the original, 
and, strange to say, going to him to announce the dis- 
covery he had made. Watt of course had no access 
to the Professor's classes, and some years before the 
former stumbled upon the fact, the theory had been 
announced by Black, but had apparently attracted 
little attention. This episode reminds us of the 
advantages Watt had in his surroundings. He 
breathed the very "atmosphere" of scientific and 
mechanical investigation and invention, and had at 
hand not only the standard books, but the living 
'men who could best assist him. 

What does latent heat mean? we hear the reader 
inquire. Let us try to explain it in simple language. 
Arago pronotmced Black's experiment revealing it 
as one of the most remarkable in modern physics. 
Water passed as an element until Watt found it was a 
compound. Change its temperature and it exists in 
three different states, liquid, solid, and gaseous — ^water, 
ice and steam. Convert water into steam, and pass, 
say, two pounds of steam into ten potmds of water 
at freezing point and the steam would be wholly 
liquified, i. e., become water again, at 212°, but the 
whole ten pounds of freezing water would also be 
raised to 212° in the process. That is to say two 



CAPTURED BY STEAM 49 

pounds of steam will convert ten pounds of freezing 
water into boiling water, so great is the latent heat 
set free in the passage of steam to lower temperatures 
at the moment when the contact of cold surfaces 
converts the vapor from the gaseous into the liquid 
state. This heat is so thoroughly merged in the com- 
pound that the most delicate thermometer cannot 
detect a variation. It is luidiscoverable by our senses 
and yet it proves its existence beyond question by its 
work. Heat which is obtained by the combustion of 
coal or wood, lies also in water, to be drawn forth and 
utilised in steam. It is apparently a mere question 
of temperature. The heat lies latent and dead until 
we raise the temperature of the water to 212°, and it 
is turned to vapor. Then the powerful force is in- 
stantly imbued with life and we harness it for our 
purposes. 

The description of latent heat which gave the 
writer the clearest idea of it, and at the same time a 
much-needed reminder of the fact that Watt was the 
discoverer of the practically constant and unvarying 
amount of heat in steam, whatever the pressure, is the 
following by Mr. Lauder, a graduate of Glasgow Uni- 
versity and pupil of Lord Kelvin, taken from " Watt's 
" Discoveries of the Properties of Steam." 

It is well to distinguish between the two things, Discovery and 
Invention. The title of Watt the Inventor is world-wide, and is so 
just and striking that there is none to gainsay. But it is only to the 



so LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

few that dive deeper that Watt the Discoverer is known. When 
his mind became directed to the possibilities of the power of steam, 
he, following his natural bent, began to investigate its properties. 
The mere inventor would have been content with what was already 
known, and utilised such knowledge, as Newcomen had done 
in his engine. Watt might have invented the separate condenser 
and ranked as a great inventor, but the spirit of enquiry was in 
possession of him, and he had to find out all he could about the 
nature of steam. 

His first discovery was that of latent heat. When communicating 
this to Professor Black he found that his friend had anticipated him, 
and had been teaching it in lectures to his students for some years 
past. His next step was the discovery of the total heat of steam, 
and that this remains practically constant at all pressures. Black's 
fame rests upon his theory of latent heat; Watt's fame as the dis- 
coverer of the total heat of steam should be equally great, and 
would be no doubt had his rdle of inventor not overshadowed all 
his work. 

This part of Watt's work has been so little known that it is 
almost imperative to-day to give some idea of it to the general 
reader. Suppose you take a flask, such as olive oil is often sold in, 
and fill with cold water. Set it over a lighted lamp, put a ther- 
mometer in the water, and the temperature will be observed to rise 
steadily till it reaches 212°, where it remains, the water boils, and 
steam is produced freely. Now draw the thermometer out of the 
water, but leaving it still in the steam. It remains steady at the 
same point — 212°. Now it requires quite a long time and a large 
amount of heat to convert all the water into steam. As the steam 
goes off at the same temperature as the water, it is evident a quan- 
tity of heat has escaped in the steam, of which the thermometer 
gives us no account. This is latent heat. 

Now, if you blow the steam into cold water instead of allowing 
it to pass into the air, you will find that it heats the water six times 
more than what is due to its indicated temperature. To fix your 
ideas: suppose you take 100 lbs. of water at 60°, and blow one pound 
of steam into it, making loi lbs., its temperature will now be about 
72°, a rise of 12°. Return to your 100 lbs. of water at 60° and add 



CAPTURED BY STEAM 51 

one pound of water at 212° the same temperature as the steam you 
added, and the temperature will only be raised about 2°. The one 
pound of steam heats six times more than the one pound of water, 
both being at the same temperature. This is the quantity of latent 
heat, which means simply hidden heat, in steam. 

Proceeding further with the experiment, if, instead of allowing 
the steam to blow into the water, you confine it until it gets to 
some pressure, then blow it into the water, it takes the same weight 
to raise the temperature to the same degree. This means that the 
total heat remains practically the same, no matter at what pressure. 

This is James Watt's discovery, and it led him to the use of high- 
pressure steam, used expansively. 

Even coal may yet be superseded before it is ex- 
hausted, for as eminent an authority as Professor 
Pritchett of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
has said in a recent address : 

Watt's invention and all it has led to is only a step on the way to 
harnessing the forces of nature to the service of man. Do you 
doubt that other inventions will work changes even more sweeping 
than those which the steam engine has brought ? 

Consider a moment. The problem of which Watt solved a part 
is not the problem of inventing a machine, but the problem of using 
and storing the forces of nature which now go to waste. Now to 
us who live on the earth there is only one source of power — the sun. 
Darken the sun and every engine on the earth's surface would soon 
stop, every wheel cease to turn, and all movement cease. How 
prodigal this supply of power is we seldom stop to consider. Deduct- 
ing the atmospheric absorption, it is still true that the sun delivers 
on each square yard of the earth's surface, when he is shining, the 
equivalent of one horse-power working continuously. Enough 
mechanical power goes to waste on the college campus to warm and 
light and supply all the manufactories, street railroads and other 
consumers of mechanical power in the city. How to harness this 
power and to store it — that is the problem of the inventor and the 



52 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

engineer of the twentieth century, a problem which in good time is8 
sure to be solved. 

Who shall doubt, after finding this secret source of 
force in water, that some future Watt is to discover 
other sources of power, or perchance succeed in utilising 
the superabundant power known to exist in the heat of 
the sun, or discover the secret of the latent force em- 
ployed by nature in animals, which converts chemical 
energy directly into the dynamic form, giving much 
higher efficiencies than any thermo-dynamic machine 
has to-day or probably ever can have. Little knew 
Shakespeare of man's perfect power of motion which 
utilises all energy! How came he then to exclaim 
" What a piece of work is man ; how infinite in faculty; 
"in form and moving how express and admirable'*? 
This query, and a thousand others, have arisen; for 
we forget Arnold's lines to the Master: 

" Others abide our question. Thou art free. 
" We ask and ask — thou smilest and art still." 

Man's "moving" is foimd more "express and ad- 
"mirable" than that of the most perfect machine or 
adaptation of natural forces yet devised. Lord Kelvin 
says the animal motor more closely resembles an 
electro-magnetic engine than a heat engine, but very 
probably the chemical forces in animals produce the 
external mechanical effects through electricity and do 
not act as a thermo-dynamic engine. 

The wastage of heat energy under present methods 



CAPTURED BY STEAM 53 

is appalling. About 65 per cent, of the heat energy 
of coal can be put into the steam boiler, and from this 
only 1 5 per cent, of mechanical power is obtained. 
Thus about nine-tenths of the original heat in coal is 
wasted. Proceeding further and putting mechanical 
power into electricity, only from 2 to 5 per cent, is 
turned into light ; or, in other words, from coal to light 
we get on an average only about one-half of i per cent, 
of the original energy, a wastage of ninety-nine and 
one-half of every hundred pounds of coal used. The 
very best possible with largest and best machinery is a 
little more than one poimd from every hundred con- 
sumed. 

When Watt gave to the steam-engine five times its 
efficiency by utilising the latent heat, he only touched 
the fringe of the mysterious realm which envelops man. 

Burbank, of the spineless cactus and new fruits, who 
has been delving deep into the mysteries, tells us: 

The facts of plant life demand a kinetic theory of evolution, a 
slight change from Huxley's statement that, "Matter is a magazine 
of force," to that of matter being force alone. The time will come 
when the theory of "ions" will be thrown aside, and no line left 
between force and matter." 

Professor Matthews, he who, with Professor Loeb at 
Wood's Hole, is imparting life to sea-urchins through 
electrical reactions, declares " that certain chemical sub- 
" stances coming together under certain conditions are 
"bound to produce life. All life comes through the 



54 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

" operation of tiniversal laws." We are but young in all 
this mysterious business. What lies behind and prob- 
ably near at hand may not merely revolutionise 
material agencies but human preconceptions as well. 
" There are more things in Heaven and Earth than 
"are ever dreamt of in your Philosophy." 

Latent Heat was a find indeed, but there remained 
another discovery yet to make. Watt found that no 
less than four-fifths of all the steam used was lost in 
heating the cold cylinder, and only one-fifth performed 
service by acting on the piston. Prevent this, and 
the power of the giant is increased fourfold. Here was 
the prize to contend for. Win this and the campaign 
is won. First then, what caused the loss? This was 
soon determined. The cylinder was necessarily cooled 
at the top because it was open to the air, and also 
cooled below in condensing the charge of steam that 
had driven the piston up in order to create a vacuum, 
without which the piston would not descend from top 
to bottom, to begin another upward stroke. A jet of 
cold water was introduced to effect this. How to sur- 
mount this seemingly insuperable obstacle was the 
problem that kept Watt long in profound study. 

Many plans were entertained, only to be finally 
rejected. At last the flash came into that teeming 
brain like a stroke of lightning. Eureka ! he had found 
it. Not one scintilla of doubt ever intruded there- 
after. The solution lay right there and he would invent 



CAPTURED BY STEAM 55 

the needed appliances. His mode of procedure, when 
on the trail of big game, is beautifully illustrated here. 
When he found the root of the defect which rendered 
the Newcomen engine impracticable for general pur- 
poses, he promptly formulated the one indispensable 
condition which alone met the problem, and which the 
successful steam-engine must possess. He abandoned 
all else for the time as superfluous, since this was the 
key of the position. This is the law he then laid down 
as an axiom — ^which is repeated in his specification for 
his first patent in 1769: "To make a perfect steam 
"engine it was necessary that the cylinder should be 
"always as hot as the steam which entered it, and 
"that the steam should be cooled below 100° to exert 
"its full powers." 

Watt describes how at last the idea of the " separate 
"condenser," the complete cure, flashed suddenly upon 
his mind: 

I had gone to take a walk on a fine Sabbath afternoon, early 
in 1765. I had entered the green by the gate at the foot of 
Charlotte Street and had passed the old washing-house. I was 
thinking upon the engine at the time, and had gone as far as the 
herd's house, when the idea came into my mind that as steam 
was an elastic body it would rush into a vacuum, and if a communi- 
cation were made between the cylinder and an exhausted vessel 
it would rush into it, and might be there condensed without 
cooling the cylinder. I then saw that I must get rid of the con- 
densed steam and injection-water if I used a jet as in Newcomen 's 
engine. Two ways of doing this occurred to me. First, the 
water might be run ofiE by a descending pipe, if an offlet could be 



56 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

got at the depth of thirty-five or thirty-six feet, and any air 
might be extracted by a small pump. The second was to make 
the pump large enough to extract both water and air. ... I 
had not walked farther than the golf -house when the whole thing 
was arranged in my mind. 

Professor Black says, "This capital improvement 
"flashed upon his mind at once and filled him with 
"rapture." We may imagine 

"Then felt he like some watcher of the sides 
"When a new planet sweeps into his ken." 

A new world had sprung forth in Watt's brain, for 
nothing less has the steam engine given to man. One 
reads with a smile the dear modest man's deprecatory 
remarks about the condenser in after years, when he 
was overcome by the glowing tributes paid him upon 
one occasion and hailed as having conquered hitherto 
uncontrollable steam. He stammered out words to 
the effect that it came in his way and he happened to 
find it ; others had missed it ; that was all ; somebody 
had to stumble upon it. That is all very well, and we 
love thee, Jamie Watt (he was always Jamie to his 
friends) , for such self-abnegation, but the truth of his- 
tory must be vindicated for all that. It proclaims, 
Thou art the man; go up higher and take your seat 
there among the immortals, the inventor of the greatest 
of all inventions, a great discoverer and one of the 
noblest of men! 

In this one change lay all the difference between the 



CAPTURED BY STEAM 57 

Newcomen engine, limited to atmospheric pressure, 
and the steam engine, capable of development into the 
modem engine through the increasing use of the tre- 
mendous force of steam under higher pressures, and 
improved conditions from time to time. 

Watt leads the steam out of the cylinder and con- 
denses it in a separate vessel, leaving the cylinder hot. 
He closes the cylinder top and sends a circular piston 
(hitherto all had been square) through it, and closely 
stuffs it around to prevent escape of steam. The rapidity 
of the "strokes" gained keeps the temperature of the 
cylinder high ; besides, he encases it and leaves a space 
between cylinder and covering filled with steam. Thus 
he fulfils his law: "The cylinder is kept as hot as the 
** steam that enters. * ' " How simple ! ' ' you exclaim. *' Is 
"that all? How obviously this is the way to do it!" 
Very true, surprised reader, but true, also, that no con- 
denser and closed cylinder, no modern steam engine. 

On Monday morning following the Sabbath flash, 
we find Watt was up betimes at work upon the new 
idea. How many hours' sleep he had enjoyed is not 
recorded, but it may be imagined that he had several 
visions of the condenser dtiring the night. One was 
to be made at once; he borrowed from a college 
friend a brass syringe, the body of which served as a 
cylinder. The first condenser vessel was an improvised 
syringe and a tin can. From such an acorn the mighty 
oak was to grow. The experiment was successful and 



58 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

the invention complete, but Watt saw clearly that years 
of unceasing labor might yet pass before the details 
could all be worked out and the steam engine appear 
ready to revolutionise the labor of the world. During 
these years, Professor Black was his chief adviser and 
encouraged him in hours of disappointment. The true 
and able friend not only did this, but furnished him 
with money needed to enable him to concentrate all 
his time and strength upon the task. 

Most opportunely, at this juncture, came Watt*s 
marriage, to his cousin Miss Miller, a lady to whom he 
had long been deeply attached. Watt's friends are 
agreed in stating that the marriage was of vast impor- 
tance, for he had not passed untouched through the 
days of toil and trial. Always of a meditative turn, 
somewhat prone to melancholy when without com- 
panionship, and withal a sufferer from nervous head- 
aches, there was probably no gift of the gods equal to 
that of such a wife as he had been so fortunate as to 
secure. Gentle yet strong in her gentleness, it was her 
courage, her faith, and her smile that kept Watt stead-^ 
fast. No doubt he, like many other men blessed with 
an angel in the household, could truly aver that his 
worrying cares vanished at the doorstep. 

Watt had at last, what he never had before, a home. 
More than one intimate friend has given expression 
to the doubt whether he could have triumphed without 
Mrs. Watt's bright and cheerful temperament to keep 



CAPTURED BY STEAM 59 

him from despondency during the trying years which 
he had now to encounter. Says Miss Campbell : 

I have not entered into any of the interesting details my 
mother gave me of Mr. Watt's early and constant attachment to 
his cousin Miss Miller ; but she ever considered it as having 
added to his enjoyment of life, and as having had the most 
beneficial influence on his character. Even his powerful mind 
sank occasionally into misanthropic gloom, from the pressure of 
long-continued nervous headaches, and repeated disappointments 
in his hopes of success in life. Mrs. Watt, from her sweetness of 
temper, and lively, cheerful disposition, had power to win him 
from every wa3rward fancy ; to rouse and animate him to active 
exertion. She drew out all his gentle virtues, his native benevo- 
lence and warm affections. 

From all that has been recorded of her, we are jus- 
tified in classing Watt with Bassanio. 

"It is very meet 
He live an upright life, 
For having such a blessing in his lady, 
He finds the joys of heaven here on earth; 
And if on earth he do not merit it. 
In reason he should never come to heaven." 

Watt knew and felt this and let us hope that, as 
was his duty, he let Mrs. Watt know it, not only by act, 
but by frequent acknowledgment. 

Watt did not marry imprudently, for his instrument- 
making business had increased, as was to have been 
expected, for his work soon made a reputation as 
being most perfectly executed. At first he was able 
to carry out all his orders himself; now he had as 



6o LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

many as sixteen workmen. He took a Mr. Craig as a 
partner, to obtain needed capital. His profits one 
year were $3,000. The business had been removed 
in 1760 to new quarters in the city, and Watt 
himself had rented a house outside the university 
grounds. Having furnished it, Watt brought his young 
wife and installed her there, July, 1764. We leave him 
there, happy in the knowledge that he is to be carefully 
looked after, and, last but not least, steadily encour- 
aged and counselled not to give up the engine. As we 
shall presently see, such encouragement was much 
needed at intervals. 

The first step was to construct a model embodying 
all the inventions in a working form. An old cellar 
was rented, and there the work began. To prepare 
the plan was easy, but its execution was quite another 
story. Watt's sad experience with indifferent work 
had not been lost upon him, and he was determined 
that, come what may, this working model should not 
fail from imperfect construction. His own handiwork 
had been of the finest and most delicate kind, but, as 
he said, he had "very little experience of mechanics 
"in great.^' This model was a monster in those days, 
and great was the difficulty of finding mechanics capa- 
ble of carrying out his designs. The only available men 
were blacksmiths and tinsmiths, and these were most 
clumsy workmen, even in their own crafts. Were 
Watt to revisit the earth to-day, he would not easily 



CAPTURED BY STEAM 6i 

find a more decided change or advance over 1764, in 
all that has been changed or improved since then, than 
in this very department of applied mechanics. To-day 
such a model as Watt constructed in the cellar would 
be simple work indeed. Even the gasoline or the elec- 
tric motor of to-day, though compHcated far beyond the 
steam model, is now produced by automatic machinery. 
Skilled workmen do not have to fashion the parts. 
They only stand looking on at machinery — itself made 
by automatic tools — ^performing work of imerring 
accuracy. Had Watt had at his call only a small part 
of the inventor's resources of our day, his model steam 
engine might have been named the Minerva, for 
Minerva-like, it would have sprung forth complete, the 
creature of automatic machinery, the workmen mean- 
while smilingly looking on at these slaves of the me- 
chanic which had been brought forth and harnessed to 
do his bidding by the exercise of godlike reason. 

The model was ready after six months of unceasing 
labor, but notwithstanding the scrupulous fastidious- 
ness displayed by Watt in the workmanship of all the 
parts, the machine, alas, "snifted at many openings." 
Little can our mechanics of to-day estimate what 
** perfect joints ** meant in those days. The entire cor- 
rectness of the great idea was, however, demonstrated 
by the trials made. The right principle had been dis- 
covered ; no doubt of that. Watt's decision was that 
" it must be followed to an issue. " There was no peace 



62 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

for him otherwise. He wrote (April, 1765) to a friend, 
"My whole thoughts are bent on this machine. I can 
"think of nothing else." Of course not; he was hot in 
the chase of the biggest game hunter ever had laid eyes 
on. He had seen it, and he knew he had the weapons 
to bring it down. A larger model, free as possible from 
defects which he felt he could avoid in the next, was 
promptly determined upon. A larger and better shop 
was obtained, and here Watt shut himself up with an 
assistant and erected the second model. Two months 
sufficed, instead of six required for the first. This one 
also at first trial leaked in many directions, and the 
condenser needed alterations. Nevertheless, the engine 
accomplished much, for it worked readily with ten and 
one-half pounds pressure per square inch, a decided 
increase over previous results. It was still the cylinder 
and its piston that gave Watt the chief trouble. No 
wonder the cylinder leaked. It had to be hammered 
into something like true lines, for at that day so back- 
ward was the art that not even the whole collective 
mechanical skill of cylinder-making could furnish a 
bored cylinder of the simplest kind. This is not to 
be construed as unduly hard upon Glasgow, for it is 
said that all the skill of the world could not do so in 
1765, only one himdred and forty years ago. We travel 
so fast that it is not surprising that there are wiseacres 
among us quite convinced that we are standing still. 
We may be pardoned for again emphasising the fact 



CAPTURED BY STEAM 6^ 

that it is not only for his discoveries and inventions 
that Watt is to be credited, but also for the manual 
ability displayed in giving to these "airy nothings 
"of the brain, a local habitation and a name," for his 
greatest idea might have remained an "airy nothing," 
had he not been also the mechanician able to produce 
it in the concrete. It is not, therefore, only Watt the 
inventor. Watt the discoverer, but also Watt, the 
manual worker, that stands forth. As we shall see 
later on, he created a new type of workmen capable 
of executing his plans, working with, and educating 
them often with his own hands. Only thus did he 
triumph, laboring mentally and physically. Watt 
therefore must always stand among the benefactors 
of men, in the triple capacity of discoverer, inventor, 
and constructor. 

The defects of the cylinder, though serious, were 
clearly mechanical. Their certain cure lay in devising 
mechanical tools and appliances and educating work- 
men to meet the new demands. An exact cylinder 
would leave no room for leakage between its smooth 
and true stirface and the piston; but the solution of 
another difficulty was not so easily indicated. Watt 
having closed the top of the cylinder to save steam, 
was debarred from using water on the upper surface 
of the piston as Newcomen did, to fill the interstices 
between piston and cylinder and prevent leakage of 
steam, as his piston was round and passed through 



64 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

the top of the cyHnder. The model leaked badly 
from this cause, and while engaged trj^ing numerous 
expedients to meet this, and many different things for 
stuffing, he wrote to a friend, "My old White Iron 
"man is dead.'* This being the one he had trained to 
be his best mechanic, was a grievous loss in those days. 
Misfortimes never come singly; he had just started 
the engine after overhauling it, when the beam broke. 
Discouraged, but not defeated, he battled on, steadily 
gaining ground, meeting and solving one difficulty 
after another, certain that he had discovered how to 
utilise steam. 



Partnership with Roebuck 



CHAPTER IV 
Partnership with Roebuck 

CAPITAL was essential to perfect and place the 
engine upon the market ; it would require several 
thousand pounds. Had Watt been a rich man, the 
path would have been clear and easy, but he was 
poor, having no means but those derived from his 
instrument-making business, which for some time had 
necessarily been neglected. Where was the daring 
optimist who could be induced to risk so much in an 
enterprise of this character, where result was proble- 
matical. Here, Watt's best friend. Professor Black, 
who had himself from his own resources from time to 
time relieved Watt's pressing necessities, proved once 
more the friend in time of need. Black thought of 
Dr. Roebuck, founder of the celebrated Carron Iron 
Works near by, which Bums apostrophised in these 
lines, when denied admittance: 

"We cam na here to view your works 
** In hopes to be mair wise, 
"But only lest we gang to hell 
** It may be nae surprise." 

He was approached upon the subject by Dr. Black, 
and finally, in September, 1765, he invited Watt to 

67 



68 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

visit him with the Professor at his country home, and 
urged him to press forward his invention *' whether he 
" pursued it as a philosopher or as a man of business." 
In the month of November Watt sent Roebuck draw- 
ings of a covered cylinder and piston to be cast at his 
works, but it was so poorly done as to be useless. 
"My principal difficulty in making engines," he wrote 
Roebuck, "is always the smith-work." 

By this time. Watt was seriously embarrassed for 
money. Experiments cost much and brought in 
nothing. His duty to his family required that he 
should abandon these for a time and labor for means 
to support it. He determined to begin as a surveyor, 
as he had mastered the art when making surveying 
instrtiments, as was his custom to study and master 
wherever he touched. He could never rest until he 
knew all there was to know about anything. Of 
course he succeeded. Everybody knew he would, and 
therefore business came to him. Even a public body, 
the magistrates of Glasgow, had not the slightest 
hesitation in obtaining his services to survey a canal 
which was to open a new coal field. He was also com- 
missioned to survey the proposed Forth and Clyde 
canal. Had he been content to earn money and be- 
come leading surveyor or engineer of Britain, the 
world might have waited long for the forthcoming 
giant destined to do the world's work; but there was 
little danger of this. The world had not a temptation 



PARTNERSHIP WITH ROEBUCK 69 

that could draw Watt from his appointed work. His 
thoughts were ever with his engine, every spare 
moment being devoted to it. Roebuck's speculative 
and enterprising natiu*e led him also into the entranc- 
ing field of steam. It haunted him imtil finally, in 
1767, he decided to pay off Watt's debts to the 
amount of a thousand pounds, provide means for 
further experiments, and secure a patent for the 
engine. In return, he became owner of two thirds of 
the invention. 

Next year Watt made trial of a new and larger 
model, with unsatisfactory results upon the first 
trial. He wrote Roebuck that "by an unforeseen 
** misforttme, the mercury found its way into the 
"cylinder and played the devil with the solder." 
Only after a month's hard labor was the second 
trial made, with very different and indeed astonishing 
results — "success to my heart's content," exclaimed 
Watt. Now he would pay his long-promised debt to 
his partner Roebuck, to whom he wrote, "I sincerely 
" wish you joy of this successful result, and hope it will 
"make some return for the obligations I owe you." 
The visit of congratulation paid to his partner Roebuck, 
was delightful. Now were all their griefs " in the deep 
"bosom of the ocean buried" by this recent success. 
Already they saw fortunes in their hands, so brightly 
shone the sun these few but happy days. But the old 
song has its lesson : 



70 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

*' I've seen the morning the gay hills adorning, 
"I've seen it storming before the close of day." 

Instead of instant success, trying days and years 
were still before them. A patent was decided upon, 
a matter of course and almost of formality in our 
day, but far from this at that time, when it was 
considered monopolistic and was highly unpopular 
on that accoimt. Watt went to Berwick-on-Tweed 
to make the required declaration before a Master in 
Chancery. In August, 1768, we find him in London 
about the patent, where he became so utterly 
wearied with the delays, and so provoked with the 
enormous fees required to protect the invention, 
that he wrote his wife in a most despairing mood. 
She administered the right medicine in reply, " I beg 
" you will not make yourself uneasy though things do 
** not succeed as you wish. If the engine will not do, 
"something else will; never despair." Happy man 
whose wife is his best doctor. From the very simimit 
of elation, to which he had been raised by the success 
of the model, Watt was suddenly cast down into the 
valley of despair to find that only half of his heavy 
task was done, and the hill of difficulty still loomed 
before. Reaction took place, and the fine brain, so 
long strained to utmost tension, refused at intervals 
to work at high pressure. He became subject to re- 
curring fits of despondency, aggravated, if not primar- 
ily caused by anxiety for his family, who could not be 



PARTNERSHIP WITH ROEBUCK 71 

maintained unless he engaged in work yielding prompt 
rettirns. 

We may here mention one of his lifelong traits, 
which revealed itself at times. Watt was no man of 
affairs. Business was distasteful to him. As he once 
wrote his partner, Boulton, he "would rather face a 
"loaded cannon than settle a disputed account or 
"make a bargain." Monetary matters were his special 
aversion. For any other form of annoyance, danger 
or responsibility, he had the lion heart. Pecuniary 
responsibility was his bogey of the dark closet. He 
writes that, "Solomon said that in the increase of 
* ' knowledge there is increase of sorrow : if he had 
"substituted business for knowledge it would have 
** been perfectly true." 

Roebuck shines out brilliantly in this emergency. 
He was always sanguine, and encouraged Watt to go 
forward. October, 1768, he writes: 

You are now letting the most active part of your life insensibly 
glide away. A day, a moment, ought not to be lost. And you 
should not suffer your thoughts to be diverted by any other object, 
or even improvement of this [model], but only the speediest and 
m.ost effectual manner of executing an engine of a proper size, 
according to your present ideas. 

Watt wrote Dr. Small in January, 1769, "I have 
" much contrived and little executed. How much would 
" good health and spirits be worth to me ! " and a month 
later, "I am still plagued with headaches and some- 



72 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

"times heartaches." Sleepless nights now came upon 
him. All this time, however, he was absorbed in his 
one engrossing task. Leupold's "Theatrim Mach- 
" inanmi," which fell into his hands, gave an account of 
the machinery, furnaces and methods of mine-working 
in the upper Hartz. Alas ! the book was in German, and 
he could not understand it. He promptly resolved to 
master the language, sought out a Swiss-German dyer 
then settled in Glasgow whom he engaged to give him 
lessons. So German and the German book were 
both mastered. Not bad work this from one in the 
depths of despair. It has been before noted that for 
the same end he had successfully mastered French and 
Italian. So in sickness as in health his demon steam 
pursued him, giving him no rest. 

Watt had a hard piece of work in preparing his 
first patent-specification, which was all-important in 
those early days of patent "monopolies" as these 
were considered. Their validity often turned upon a 
word or two too much or too little. It was as danger- 
ous to omit as to admit. Professionals agree in 
opinion that Watt here displayed extraordinary 
ability. 

In nothing has public opinion more completely 
changed than in its attitude toward patents. In 
Watt's day, the inventor who applied for a patent was 
a would-be monopolist. The courts shared the popular 
belief. Lord Brougham vehemently remonstrated 



PARTNERSHIP WITH ROEBUCK 73 

against this, declaring that the inventor was entitled 
to remuneration. Every point was construed against 
the unfortunate benefactor, as if he were a public 
enemy attempting to rob his fellows. To-day the 
inventor is hailed as the foremost of benefactors. 

Notable indeed is it that on the very day Watt 
obtained his first patent, January 5th, 1769, Ark- 
wright got his spinning-frame patent. Only the year 
before Hargreaves obtained his patent for the spinning- 
jenny. These are the two inventors, with Whitney, 
the American inventor of the cotton-gin, from whose 

brains came the development of the textile industry in 
which Britain still stands foremost. Fifty-six millions 
of spindles turn to-day in the little island — ^more than 
all the rest of the civilised world can boast. Much 
later came Stephenson with his locomotive. Here 
is a record for a quartette of manual laborers in the 
truest sense, actual wage-earners as mechanics — Watt, 
Stephenson, Arkwright, and Hargreaves! Where is 
that quartette to be equalled? 

Workingmen of our day should ponder over this, and 
take to heart the truth that manual mechanical labor 
is the likeliest career to develop mechanical inventors 
and lead them to such distinction as these benefactors 
of man achieved. If disposed to mourn the lack of 
opportunity, they should think of these working-men, 
whose advantages were small compared to those of 
our day. 



74 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

The greatest invention of all, the condenser, is fully 
covered by the first patent of 1769. The best engine 
up to this time was the Newcomen, exclusively used for 
pumping water. As we have seen, it was an atmos- 
pheric engine, in no sense a steam engine. Steam was 
only used to force the heavy piston upward, no other 
work being done by it. All the pumping was done 
on the downward stroke. The condensation of the 
spent steam below the piston created a vacuum, which 
only facilitated the fall of the piston. This caused 
the cylinder to be cooled between each stroke and led 
to the wastage of about four-fifths of all the steam 
used. It was to save this that the condenser was 
invented, in obedience to Watt's law, as stated in his 
patent, that " the cylinder should be kept always as hot 
*'as the steam that entered it"; but it must be kept 
clearly in mind that Watt's " modified machines," under 
his first patent, only used steam to do work upon the 
upward stroke, where Newcomen used it only to force 
up the piston. The double-acting engine — doing 
work up and down — came later, and was protected in 
the second patent of 1780. 

Watt knew better than any that although his model 
had been successful and was far beyond the Newcomen 
engine, it was obvious that it could be improved in 
many respects — ^not the least of his reasons for con- 
fidence in its final and more complete triumph. 

To these possible improvements, he devoted himself 



PARTNERSHIP WITH ROEBUCK 75 

for years. The records once again remind us that it 
was not one invention, but many, that his task in- 
volved. Smiles gives the following epitome of some 
of those pressing at this stage : 

Various trials of pipe-condensers, plate-condensers and drum- 
condensers, steam-jackets to prevent waste of heat, many trials 
of new methods to tighten the piston band, condenser pumps, oil 
pumps, gauge pumps, exhausting cylinders, loading- valves, 
double cylinders, beams and cranks — all these contrivances and 
others had to be thought out and tested elaborately amidst 
many failures and disappointments. 

There were many others. 

All unaided, this supreme toiler thus slowly and 
painfully evolved the steam engine after long years of 
constant labor and anxiety, bringing to the task a 
union of qualities and of powers of head and hand 
which no other man of his time — ^may we not venture 
to say of all time — ^was ever known to possess or ever 
exhibited. 

When a noble lord confessed to him admiration for 
his noble achievements, Watt replied, "The public only 
" look at my success and not at the intermediate failures 
" and uncouth constructions which have served me as so 
" many steps to climb to the top of the ladder." 

Quite true, but also quite right. The public have 
no time to linger over a man's mistakes. What con- 
cerns is his triumphs. We " rise upon our dead selves 
*' (failures) to higher things," and mistakes, recog- 



76 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

nised as such in after days, make for victory. The 
man who never makes mistakes never makes anything. 
The only point the wise man guards is not to make the 
same mistake twice; the first time never counts with 
the successful man. He both forgives and forgets that. 
One difference between the wise man and the foolish 
one! 

It has been truly said that Watt seemed to have 
divined all the possibilities of steam. We have a 
notable instance of this in a letter of this period 
(March, 1769) to his friend, Professor Small, in which 
he anticipated Trevithick's use of high-pressure steam 
in the locomotive. Watt said : 

I intend in many cases to employ the expansive force of steam 
to press on the piston, or whatever is used instead of one, in the 
same manner as the weight of the atmosphere is now employed 
in, common fire engines. In some cases I intend to use both the 
condenser and this force of steam, so that the powers of these engines 
will as much exceed those pressed only by the air, as the expansive 
power of the steam is greater than the weight of the atmosphere. 
In other cases, when plenty of cold water cannot be had, I intend 
to work the engines by the force of steam only, and to discharge 
it into the air by proper outlets after it has done its office. 

In these days patents could be very easily blocked, 
as Watt experienced with his improved crank motion. 
He proceeded therefore in great secrecy to erect the 
first large engine under his patent, after he had suc- 
cessfully made a very small one for trial. An outhouse 
near one of Dr. Roebuck's pits was selected as away 



PARTNERSHIP WITH ROEBUCK 77 

from prying eyes. The parts for the new engine were 
partly suppHed from Watt's own works in Glasgow and 
partly from the Carron works. Here the old trouble, 
lack of competent mechanics, was again met with. 
On his return from necessary absences, the men were 
usually found in face of the unexpected and wondering 
what to do next. As the engine neared completion, 
Watt's anxiety "for his approaching doom," he writes, 
kept him from sleep, his fears being equal to his hopes. 
He was especially sensitive and discouraged by unfore- 
seen expenditure, while his sanguine partner, Roebuck, 
on the contrary, continued hopeful and energetic, and 
often rallied his pessimistic partner on his propensity 
to look upon the dark side. He was one of those who 
adhered to the axjom, "Never bid the devil good- 
" morning till you meet him. " Smiles believes that it is 
probable that without Roebuck's support Watt cotdd 
never have gone on, but that may well be doubted. 
His anxieties probably found a needed vent in their 
expression, and left the indomitable do-or-die spirit in 
all its power. Watt's brain, working at high pressure, 
needed a safety valve. Mrs. Roebuck, wife-like, very 
properly entertained the usual opinion of devoted 
wives, that her husband was really the essential man 
upon whom the work devolved, and, that without him 
nothing could have been accomplished. Smiles prob- 
ably founded his remark upon her words to Robison : 
" Jamie (Watt) is a queer lad, and, without the Doctor 



78 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

" (her husband), his invention would have been lost. 
* ' He won ' t let it perish . ' ' The writer knows of a business 
organisation in which fond wives of the partners were 
all full of dear Mrs. Roebuck's opinion. At one time, 
according to them, the sole responsibility rested upon 
three of four of these marvellous husbands, and never 
did any of the confiding consorts ever have reason to 
feel that their friend did not share to the fullest extent 
the highly praiseworthy opinion formed of his partners 
by their loving wives. The rising smile was charitably 
suppressed. In extreme cases a suggested excursion 
to Europe at the company's expense, to relieve Chester 
from the cruel strain, and enable him to receive the 
benefit of a wife's care and ever needful advice, was 
remarkably effective, the wife's fears that Chester's 
absence would prove ruinous to the business being 
overcome at last, though with difficulty. 

Due allowance must be made for Mrs. Roebuck's 
view of the situation. There can be no doubt what- 
ever, that Mr. Roebuck's influence, hopefulness and 
courage were of inestimable value at this period 
to the over-wrought and anxious inventor. Watt 
was not made of malleable stuff, and, besides, he 
was tied to his mission. He was bound to obey 
his genius. 

The monster new engine, upon which so much 
depended, was ready for trial at last in September, 
1769. About six months had been spent in its con- 



PARTNERSHIP WITH ROEBUCK 79 

struction. Its success was indifferent. Watt had 
declared it to be a "clumsy job." The new pipe- 
condenser did not work well, the cylinder was almost 
useless, having been badly cast, and the old difficulty 
in keeping the piston-packing tight remained. Many 
things were tried for packing^ — cork, oiled rags, old 
hats (felt probably), paper, horse dung, etc., etc. 
Still the steam escaped, even after a thorough over- 
hauling. The second experiment also failed. So 
great is the gap between the small toy model and the 
practical work-performing giant, a rock upon which 
many sanguine theoretical inventors have been 
wrecked ! Had Watt been one of that class, he could 
never have succeeded. Here we have another proof 
of the soundness of the contention that Watt, the 
mechanic, was almost as important as Watt the 
inventor. 

Watt remained as certain as ever of the soundness of 
his inventions. Nothing could shake his belief that he 
had discovered the true scientific mode of utilising 
steam. His failures lay in the impossibility of finding 
mechanics capable of accurate workmanship. There 
were none such at Carron, nor did he then know of any 
elsewhere. 

Watt's letter to his friend. Dr. Small, at this jimcture, 
is interesting. He writes : 

You cannot conceive how mortified I am with this disappoint- 
ment. It is a damned thing for a man to have his all hanging by a 



8o LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

single string. If I had wherewithal to pay the loss, I don't think 
I should so much fear a failure; but I cannot bear the thought of 
other people becoming losers by my schemes ; and I have the happy 
disposition of always painting the worst. 

Watt's timidity and fear of money matters generally 
have been already noted. He had the Scotch peasant's 
horror of debt — anything but that. This probably 
arises from the fact that the trifling sums owing by the 
poor to their poor neighbors who have kindly helped 
them in distress are actually needed by these generous 
friends for comfortable existence. The loss is serious, 
and this cuts deeply into grateful hearts. The million- 
aire's downfall, with large sums owing to banks, rich 
money-lenders, and wealthy manufacturers, really 
amounts to little. No one actually suffers, since 
imprisonment for debt no longer exists; hence "debt" 
means little to the great operator, who neither 
suffers want himself by failure nor entails it upon 
others. 

To Watt, pressing pecuniary cares were never 
absent, and debt added to these made him the most 
afflicted of men. Besides this, he says, he had been 
cheated and was "unlucky enough to know." Wise 
man! ignorance in such cases is indeed bliss. We should 
almost be content to be cheated as long as we do not 
find it out. 

It was at such a crisis as this that another cloud, and 
a dark one, came. The sanguine, enterprising, kindly 



PARTNERSHIP WITH ROEBUCK 8i 

Roebuck was in financial straits. His pits had been 
much troubled by water, which no existing machinery- 
could pump out. He had hoped that the new engine 
would prove successful and sufficiently powerful in 
time to avert the drowning of the pits, but this hope 
had failed. His embarrassments were so pressing that 
he was imable to pay the cost of the engine patent, 
according to agreement, and Watt had to borrow the 
money for this from that never-failing friend. Professor 
Black. Long may his memory be gratefully re- 
membered. Watt had the delightful qualities which 
attracted friends, and those of the highest and best 
character, but among them all, though more than one 
might have been willing, none were both able and 
willing to sustain him in days of trouble except the 
famous discoverer of latent heat. When we think of 
Watt, we picture him holding Black by the one hand 
and Small by the other, repeating to them 

"I think myself in nothing else so happy 
"As in a soul remembering my dear friends.' 

The patent was secured — so much to the good — ^but 
Watt had already spent too much time upon profitless 
work, at least more time than he could afford. His 
duty to provide for the frugal wants of his family 
became imperative. "I had," he said, "a wife and 
"children, and I saw myself growing gray without 
"having any settled way of providing for them." He 



82 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

turned again to surveying and prospered, for few such 
men as Watt were to be found in those days, or in any 
day. With a record of Watt's work as surveyor, 
engineer, councillor, etc., our readers need not be trou- 
bled in detail. It should, however, be recorded that 
the chief canal schemes in Scotland in this, the day 
of canals for internal commerce, preceding the day of 
railroads that was to come, were entrusted to Watt, 
who continued to act as engineer for the Monkland 
Canal. While Watt was acting as engineer for this 
(1770-72), Dr. Small wrote him that he and Boulton 
had been talking of moving canal boats by the steam 
engine on the high-pressure principle. In his reply, 
September 30, 1770, Watt asks, ''Have you ever con- 
** sidered a spiral oar for that purpose, or are you for 
"two wheels?" To make his meaning quite plain, he 
gives a rough sketch of the screw propeller, with four 
turns as used to-day. 

Thus the idea of the screw propeller to be worked by 
his own improved engine was propoimded by Watt one 
hundred and thirty-five years ago. 

This is a remarkable letter, and a still more remark- 
able sketch, and adds another to the many true fore- 
casts of future development made by this teeming 
brain. 

Watt also made a survey of the Clyde, and reported 
upon its proposed deepening. His suggestions re- 
mained unacted upon for several years, when the work 



PARTNERSHIP WITH ROEBUCK 83 

was begun, and is not ended even in our day, of making 
a trout and salmon stream into one of the busiest, 
navigable highways of the world. This year further 
improvements have been decided upon, so that the 
monsters of our day, with 16,000-horse-power turbine 
engines, may be built near Glasgow. Watt also made 
surveys for a canal between Perth and Coupar 
Angus, for the well-known Crinan Canal and other 
projects in the Western Highlands, as also 
for the great Caledonian and the Forth and Clyde 
Canals. 

The Perth Canal was forty miles long through a 
rough country, and took forty-three days, for which 
Watt's fee, including expenses, was $400. Labor, even 
of the highest kind, was cheap in those times. We 
note his getting thirty-seven dollars for plans of a 
bridge over the Clyde. Watt prepared plans for docks 
and piers at Port Glasgow and for a new harbor at 
Ajnr. His last and most important engineering work 
in Scotland was the survey of the Caledonian Canal, 
made in the auttman of 1773, through a district then 
without roads. "An incessant rain kept me," 
he writes, "for three days as wet as water could 
"make me. I could scarcely preserve my journal 
"book." 

Suffice it to note that he saved enough money to 
be able to write, " Supposing the engine to stand good 
** for itself, I am able to pay all my debts and some little 



84 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

" thing more, so that I hope in time to be on a par with 
the world." 



We are now to make one of the saddest announce- 
ments saving dishonor that it falls to man to make. 
Watt's wife died in childbed in his absence. He was 
called home from surveying the Caledonian Canal. 
Upon arrival, he stands paralysed for a time at the 
door, unable to summon strength to enter the ruined 
home. At last the door opens and closes and we 
close our eyes upon the scene — ^no words here that 
would not be an offence. The rest is silence. 

Watt tried to play the man, but he would have been 
less than man if the ruin of his home had not made him 
a changed man. The recovery of mental equipoise 
proved for a time quite beyond his power. He could 
do all that man could do, " who could do more is none.*' 
The light of his life had gone out. 



Boulton Partnership 



CHAPTER V 
BouLTON Partnership 

AFTER Watt was restored to himself the first sub- 
1 JL ject which we find attracting him was the mis- 
fortunes of Roebuck, whose affairs were now in the 
hands of his creditors. "My heart bleeds for him,'* 
says Watt, "but I can do nothing to help him. I have 
"stuck by him, indeed, until I have hurt myself.'* 
Roebuck's affairs were far too vast to be affected by 
all that Watt had or could have borrowed. For the 
thousand pounds Watt had paid on Roebuck's ac- 
count to secure the patent, he was still in debt to 
Black. This was subsequently paid, however, with 
interest, when Watt became prosperous. 

We now bid farewell to Roebuck with genuine regret. 
He had proved himself a fine character throughout, just 
the kind of partner Watt needed. It was a great 
pity that he had to relinquish his interest in the patent, 
when, as we shall see, it would soon have saved him 
from bankruptcy and secured him a handsome com- 
petence. He must ever rank as one of the men almost 
indispensable to Watt in the development of his engine, 
and a dear, true friend. 

The darkest hour comes before the dawn, and so it 

87 



88 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

proved here. As Roebuck retired, there appeared a 
star of hope of the first magnitude, in no less a person 
than the celebrated Matthew Boulton of Birmingham, 
of whom we must say a few words by way of introduc- 
tion to our readers, for in all the world there was not 
his equal as a partner for Watt, who was ever fortunate 
in his friends. Of course Watt was sure to have 
friends, for he was through and through the devoted 
friend himself, and won the hearts of those worth 
winning. "If you wish to make a friend, be one," is 
the sure recipe. 

Boulton was not only obviously the right man but 
he came from the right place, for Birmingham was the 
headquarters of mechanical industry. At this time, 
1776, there was at last a good road to London. As 
late as 1747 the coach was advertised to run there in 
two days only "if the roads permit." 

If skilled mechanics, Watt's greatest need, were to be 
found anywhere, it was here in the centre of mechanical 
skill, and especially was it in the celebrated works of 
Boulton, which had been bequeathed from worthy sire 
to worthy son, to be largely extended and more than 
ever preeminent. 

Boulton left school early to engage in his father's 
business. When only seventeen years old, he had 
made several improvements in the manufacture of 
buttons, watch chains, and various trinkets, and had 
invented the inlaid steel buckles, which became so 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 89 

fashionable. It is stated that in that early day it was 
found necessary to export them in large quantities to 
France to be returned and sold in Britain as the 
latest productions of French skill and taste. It is 
well to get a glimpse of human nature as seen here. 
Fashion decides for a time with supreme indifference 
to quality. I^ is a question of the name. 

At his father's death, the son inherited the business. 
Great credit belongs to him for unceasingly laboring 
to improve the quality of his products and especially 
to raise the artistic standard, then so low as to have 
already caused "Brummagem" to become a term of 
reproach. He not only selected the cleverest artisans, 
but he employed the best artists, Flaxman being one, 
to design the artistic articles produced. The natural 
result followed. Boulton's work soon gained high 
reputation. New and larger factories became neces- 
sary, and the celebrated Soho works arose in 1762. 
The spirit in which Boulton pursued business is re- 
vealed in a letter to his partner at Soho from London. 
**The prejudice that Birmingham hath so justly estab- 
" lished against itself makes every fault conspicuous in 
"all articles that have the least pretensions to taste." 
It may interest American readers familiar with One 
Dollar watches, rendered possible by production upon 
a large scale, that it was one of Boulton's leading ideas 
in that early day that articles in common use could be 
produced much better and cheaper " if manufactured 



90 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

"by the help of the best machinery upon a large 
"scale, and this could be successfully done in the 
"making of clocks and timepieces." He promptly 
erected the machinery and started this new branch of 
business. Both King and Queen received him cor- 
dially and became his patrons. Soho works soon 
became famous and one of the show places of the 
country; princes, philosophers, poets, authors and 
merchants from foreign lands visited them and were 
hospitably received by Boulton. 

He was besieged with requests to take gentlemen 
apprentices into the works, hundreds of poands some- 
times being offered as premium,, but he resolutely 
declined, preferring to employ boys whom he could 
train up as workmen. He replies to a gentleman ap- 
plicant, " I have built and furnished a house for the 
" reception of one class of apprentices — fatherless chil- 
" dren, parish apprentices, and hospital boys ; and gen- 
" tlemen's sons would probably find themselves out of 
"place in such companionship." 

It is not to be inferred that Boulton grew up an 
uncultured man because he left school very early. 
On the contrary, he steadily educated himself, devoting 
much time to study, so that with his good looks, hand- 
some presence, the manners of the gentleman born, 
and knowledge much beyond the average of that class, 
he had little difficulty in winning for his wife a lady 
of such position in the county as led to some opposi 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 91 

tion on the part of members of her family to the 
suitor, but only "on account of his being in trade." 
There exists no survival of this objection in these 
days of American alliances with heirs of the highest 
British titles. We seem now to have as its substitute 
the condition that the father of the bride must be in 
trade and that heavily and to some purpose. 

Boulton, like most busy men, had time, and an open 
mind, for new ideas. None at this time interested 
him so deeply as that of the steam engine. Want of 
water-power proved a serious difficulty at Soho. He 
wrote to a friend, "The enormous expense of the 
"horsepower" (it was also irregular and sometimes 
failed) "put me upon thinking of turning the mill 
" by fire. I made many fruitless experiments on the 
"subject." 

Boulton wrote Franklin, February 22, 1766, in 
London, about this, and sent a model he had made. 
Franklin replies a month later, apologising for the delay 
on account of "the hurry and anxiety I have been 
"engaged in with our American affairs."* 

Tamer of lightning and tamer of steam, Franklin 
and Watt — one of the new, the other of the old 



* If those in London had only listened to Franklin and taken his advice when he pleaded 
for British liberties for British subjects in America ! It is refreshing to read in our day how 
completely the view regarding colonies has changed in Britain. These are now pronounced 
" Independent nations, free to go or stay in the empire, as they choose," the very surest way 
to prolong the connection. This is true statesmanship. Being free, the chains become 
decorations and cease to chafe the wearer, unless great growth comes, when the colony must 
at its maturity perforce either merge with the motherland under one joint government or 
become a free and independent nation, giving her sons a country of their own for which to 
live, and, if necessary, to die. 



92 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

branch of our English-speaking race — co-operating 
in enlarging the powers of man and pushing forward 
the chariot of progress — ^fit subject, this, for the sculptor 
and painter! 

How much further the steam engine is to be the hand- 
maid of electricity cannot be told, for it seems impos- 
sible to set limits to the future conquests of the latter, 
which is probably destined to perform miracles un- 
dreamt of to-day, perhaps coupled in some unthought- 
of way, with radium, the youngest sprite of the weird, 
imcanny tribe of mysterious agents. Uraniiim, the 
supposed basis of the latest discovery, Radium, has 
only one-millionth part of the heat of the latter. The 
slow-moving earth takes twenty-four hours to turn 
upon its axis. Raditmi covers an equal distance while 
we pronounce its name. One and one-quarter seconds, 
and twenty-five thousand miles are traversed. Puck 
promises to put his "girdle round the earth in forty 
minutes." Radiimi would pass the fairy girdlist in the 
spin round sixteen htindred times. Thus truth, as it is 
being evolved in our day, becomes stranger than the 
wildest imaginings of fiction. Our century seems on 
the threshold of discoveries and advances, not less 
revolutionary, perhaps more so, than those that have 
sprung from steam and electricity. " Canst thou send 
lightnings to say *Lo, here I am'?" silenced man. It 
was so obviously beyond his power until last century. 
Now he smiles as he reads the question. Is Tyndal's 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 93 

prophecy to be verified that " the potency of all things 
*' is yet to be found in matter"? 

We may be sure the searching, restless brains of 
Franklin and Watt would have been meditating upon 
strange things these days if they were now alive. 

Boulton is entitled to rank, so far as the writer 
knows, as the first man in the world worthy to wear 
Carlyle's now somewhat familiar title, "Captain of 
" Industry" for he was in his day foremost in the indus- 
trial field, and before that, industrial organisations 
had not developed far enough to create or require 
captains, in Carlyle's sense. 

Roebuck, while Watt's partner, was one of Boulton's 
correspondents, and told him of Watt's progress with 
the model engine which proved so successful. Boulton 
was deeply interested, and expressed a desire that Watt 
should visit him at Soho. This he did, on his return 
from a visit to London concerning the patent. Boul- 
ton was not at home, but his intimate friend, Dr. 
Small, then residing at Birmingham, a scientist and 
philosopher, whom Franklin had recommended to 
Botdton, took Watt in charge. Watt was amazed at 
what he saw, for this was his first meeting with trained 
and skilled mechanics, the lack of whom had made his 
life miserable. The precision of both tools and work- 
men sank deep. Upon a subsequent visit, he met the 
captain himself, his future partner, and of course, as 
like draws to like, they drew to each other, a case of 



94 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

mutual liking at first sight. We meet one stranger, 
and stranger he remains to the end of the chapter. We 
meet another, and ere we part he is a kindred soul. 
Magnetic attraction is sudden. So with these two, 
who, by a kind of free-masonry, knew that each had 
met his affinity. The Watt engine was exhaustively 
canvassed and its inventor was delighted that the 
great, sagacious, prudent and practical manufacturer 
should predict its success as he did. Shortly after this, 
Professor Robison visited Soho, which was a magnet 
that attracted the scientists in those days. Boulton 
told him that he had stopped work upon his proposed 
pumping engine. " I would necessarily avail myself of 
"what I learned from Mr. Watt's conversation, and 
"this would not be right without his consent." 

It is such a delicate sense of honor as is here dis- 
played that marks the man, and finally makes his 
influence over others commanding in business. It is 
not sharp practice and smart bargaining that tell. 
On the contrary, there is no occupation in which not 
only fair but liberal dealing brings greater reward. 
The best bargain is that good for both parties. Boul- 
ton and Watt were friends. That much was settled. 
They had business transactions later, for we find Watt 
sending a package containing "one dozen German 
"flutes'* (made of course by him in Glasgow), "at 5s. 
"each, and a copper digester, ;£i:io." Boulton's 
people probably wished samples. 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 95 

Much correspondence followed between Dr. Small 
and Watt, the latter constantly expressing the wish 
that Mr. Boulton could be induced to become partner 
with himself and Roebuck in his patents. Naturally 
the sagacious manufacturer was disinclined to asso- 
ciate himself with Mr. Roebuck, then in financial 
straits, but the position changed when he had become 
bankrupt and affairs were in the hands of creditors. 
Watt therefore renewed the subject and agreed to go 
and settle in Birmingham, as he had been urged to do. 
Roebuck's pitiable condition he keenly felt, and had 
done everything possible to ameliorate. 

What little I can do for him is purchased by denying myself the 
conveniences of life my station requires, or by remaining in debt, 
which it galls me to the bone to owe. I shall be content to hold 
a very small share in the partnership, or none at all, provided I 
am to be freed from my pecuniary obligations to Roebuck and 
have any kind of recompense for even a part of the anxiety and 
ruin it has involved me in. 

Thus wrote Watt to his friend Small, August 30, 1772. 
Small's reply pointed out one difficulty which deserves 
notice and commendation. "It is impossible for Mr. 
" Boulton and me, or any otherhonest man, to purchase, 
" especially from two partictdar friends, what has no 
* ' market price, and at a time when they might be inclined 
*' to part with the commodity at an under value. " This 
is an objection which to stock-exchange standards 
may seem "not well taken," and far too fantastical for 



96 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

the speculative domain, and yet it is neither surprising 
nor unusual in the realms of genuine business, in which 
men are concerned with or creating only intrinsic 
values. 

The result so ardently desired by Watt was reached in 
this unexpected fashion. It was found that in the 
ordinary course of business Roebuck owed Boulton 
a balance of $6,000. Boulton agreed to take the 
Roebuck interest in the Watt patent for the debt. 
As the creditors considered the patent interest worth- 
less, they gladly accepted. As Watt said, "it was 
" only paying one bad debt with another." 

Boulton asked Watt to act as his attorney in the 
matter, which he did, writing Boulton that " the thing 
*' is now a shadow ; 'tis merely ideal, and will cost time 
"and money to realise it." This as late as March 29, 
1773, after eight years of constant experimentation, 
with many failures and disappointments, since the 
discovery of the separate condenser in 1765, which was 
then hailed, and rightly so, as the one thing needed. 
It remained the right and only foundation upon which 
to develop the steam engine, but many minor obstacles 
intervened, requiring Watt's inventive and mechanical 
genius to overcome. 

The transfer of Roebuck's two-third interest to 
Boulton afterward carried with it the formation of the 
celebrated firm of Boulton and Watt. The latter 
arranged his affairs as quickly as possible. He had 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 97 

only made $1,000 for a whole year spent in sur- 
veying, and part of that he gave to Roebuck in 
his necessity, *'so that I can barely support myself and 
" keep untouched the small simi I have allotted for my 
"visit^to you." (Watt to Small, July 25, 1773). This 
is pitiable indeed — ^Watt pressed for money to pay his 
way to Birmingham upon important business. 

The trial engine was shipped from Kinneil to Soho 
and Watt arrived in May, 1774, in Birmingham. Here 
a new life opened before him, still enveloped in clouds, 
but we may please ourselves by believing that through 
these the wearied and harassed inventor did not fail to 
catch alluring visions of the sun. Let us hope he 
remembered the words of the beautiful hymn he had 
no doubt often sung in his youth : 

"Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take 
"The clouds ye so much dread 
"Are big with mercy, and shall break 
"With blessings on your head." 

Partnership requires not duplicates, but opposites — 
a union of different qualities. He who proves indis- 
pensable as a partner to one man might be wholly use- 
less, or even injurious, to another. Generals Grant 
and Sherman needed very different chiefs of staff. 
One secret of Napoleon's success arose from his being 
free to make his own appointments, choosing the men 
who had the qualities which supplemented his and 
cured his own shortcomings, for every man has short- 



98 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

comings. The universal genius who can manage all 
himself has yet to appear. Only one with the genius 
to recognise others of different genius and harness them 
to his own car can approach the "universal." It is a 
case of different but cooperating abilities, each part of 
the complicated machine fitting into its right place, and 
there performing its duty without jarring. 

Never were two men more '' supplementary" to each 
other than Boulton and Watt, and hence their success. 
One possessed in perfection the qualities the other 
lacked. Smiles sums this up so finely that we must 
quote him: 

Different though their characters were in most respects, Boulton 
at once conceived a hearty liking for him. The one displayed in 
perfection precisely those qualities which the other wanted. Boul- 
ton was a man of ardent and generous temperament, bold and 
enterprising, undaunted by difficulty, and possessing an almost 
boundless capacity for work. He was a man of great tact, clear 
perception, and sound judgment. Moreover, he possessed that 
indispensable quality of perseverance, without which the best 
talents are of comparatively little avail in the conduct of important 
affairs. While Watt hated business, Boulton loved it. He had, 
indeed, a genius for business — a gift almost as rare as that for 
poetry, for art, or for war. He possessed a marvellous power of 
organisation. With a keen eye for details, he combined a com- 
prehensive grasp of intellect. While his senses were so acute, that 
when sitting in his office at Soho he could detect the slightest stop- 
page or derangement in the machinery of that vast establishment, 
and send his message direct to the spot where it had occurred, 
his power of imagination was such as enabled him to look clearly 
along extensive lines of possible action in Europe, America, and the 
East. For there is a poetic as well as a commonplace side to busi' 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 99 

ness; and the man of business genius lights up the humdrum routine 
of daily life by exploring the boundless region of possibility wherever 
it may lie open before him,. 

This tells the whole story, and once again reminds 
us that without imagination and something of the 
romantic element, little great or valuable is to be done 
in any field. He "nms his business as if it were a 
*' romance," was said upon one occasion. The man who 
finds no element of romance in his occupation is to be 
pitied. We know how radically different Watt was in 
his nature to Boulton, whose judgment of men was 
said to be almost unerring. He recognised in Watt 
at their first interview, not only the original inventive 
genius, but the indefatigable, earnest, plodding and 
thorough mechanic of tenacious grip, and withal a fine, 
modest, true man, who hated bargaining and all busi- 
ness affairs, who cared nothing for wealth beyond a 
very modest provision for old age, and who was only 
happy if so situated that without anxiety for money 
to supply frugal wants, he could devote his life to the 
development of the steam engine. Thus auspiciously 
started the new firm. 

But Boulton was more than a man of business, continues Smiles; 
he was a man of culture, and the friend of educated men. His 
hospitable mansion at Soho was the resort of persons eminent in 
art, in literature, and in science; and the love and admiration 
with which he inspired such men afifords one of the best proofs of 
his own elevation of character. Among the most intimate of his 
friends and associates were Richard Lovell Edgeworth, a gentle- 



L./a 



loo LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

man of fortune, enthusiastically devoted to his long-conceived 
design of moving land-carriages by steam ; Captain Keir, an excel- 
lent practical chemist, a wit and a man of learning; Dr. Small, 
the accomplished physician, chemist and mechanist; Josiah Wedg- 
wood, the practical philosopher and manufacturer, founder of a 
new and important branch of skilled industry; Thomas Day, the 
ingenious author of "Sandford and Merton"; Dr. Darwin, the 
poet-physician; Dr. Withering, the botanist; besides others who 
afterward joined the Soho circle, not the least distinguished of 
whom were Joseph Priestley and James Watt. 

The first business in hand was the reconstruction of 
the engine brought from Kinneil, which upon trial 
performed much better than before, wholly on account 
of the better workmanship attainable at Soho; but 
there still recurs the unceasing complaint that runs 
throughout the long eight years of trial — ^lack of accurate 
tools and skilled workmen, the difference in accuracy 
between the blacksmith standard and that of the 
mathematical-instrument maker. Watt and Boulton 
alike agreed that the inventions were scientifically cor- 
rect and needed only proper construction. In our day 
it is not easy to see the apparently insuperable diffi- 
culty of making anything to scale and perfectly accu- 
rate, but we forget what the world of Watt was and 
how far we have advanced since. 

Watt wrote to his father at Greenock, November, 
1774: "The business I am here about has turned 
"out rather successful ; that is to say, the fire- 
" engine I have invented is now going, and answers 
"much better than any other that has yet been 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP loi 

made." This is as is usual with the Scotch in 
speech, in a low key and extremely modest, on a 
par with the verdict rendered by the Dunfermline 
critic who had ventured to attend ''the playhouse'* 
in Edinburgh to see Garrick in Hamlet — "no bad.'* 
The truth was that, so pronounced were the results of 
proper workmanship, coupled with some of those im- 
provements which Watt was constantly devising, the 
engine was so satisfactory as to set both Boulton and 
Watt to thinking about the patent which protected 
the invention. Six of the fourteen years for which it 
was granted had already passed. Some years would 
still be needed to ensure its general use, and it was 
feared that before the patent expired little return 
might be received. Much interest was aroused by the 
successful trial. Enquiries began to pour in for pump- 
ing engines for mines. The Newcomen had proved 
inadequate to work the mines as they became deeper, 
and many were being abandoned in consequence. The 
necessity for a new power had set many ingenious men 
to work besides Watt, and some of these were trying 
to adopt Watt's principles while avoiding his patent. 
Hatley, one of Watt's workmen upon the trial engine 
at the Carron works, had stolen and sold the drawings. 
All this put Boulton and Watt on their guard, 
and the former hesitated to build the new works 
intended for the manufacture of steam engines upon a 
large scale with improved machinery. An extension 



I02 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

of the patent seemed essential, and to secure this Watt 
proceeded to London and spent some time there, busy 
in his spare moments visiting the mathematical instru- 
ment shops of his youth, and attending to numerous 
commissions from Boulton. A second visit was paid 
to London, during which the sad intelligence of the 
death of his dear friend. Dr. Small, reached him. In 
the bitterness of his grief, Boulton writes him: "If 
'' there were not a few other objects yet remaining for me 
" to settle my affections upon, I should wish also to take 
"up my abode in the mansions of the dead." Watt's 
sympathetic reply reminds Boulton of the sentiments 
held by their departed friend — that, instead of indulging 
in unavailing sorrow, the best refuge is the more sedu- 
lous performance of duties. "Come, my dear sir," he 
writes, "and immerse yourself in this sea of business 
"as soon as possible. Pay a proper respect to your 
" friend by obeying his precepts. No endeavour of mine 
"shall be wanting to make life agreeable to you." 

Beautiful partnership this, not only of business, 
but also entering into the soul close and deep, compre- 
hending all of life and all we know of death. 

Professor Small, born 1734, was a Scot, who went 
to Williamsburg University, Virginia, as Professor of 
mathematics and natural philosophy. Thomas Jeffer- 
son was among his pupils. His health suffered, and 
he returned to the old home. Franklin introduced 
him to Boulton, writing (May 22, 1765): 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 103 

I beg leave to introduce my friend Doctor Small to your acquaint- 
ance, and to recommend him to your civilities. I would not take 
this freedom if I were not sure it would be agreeable to you; and 
that you will thank me for adding to the number of those who from 
their knowledge of you must respect you, one who is both an in- 
genious philosopher and a most worthy, honest man. If anything 
new in magnetism or electricity, or any other branch of natural 
knowledge, has occurred to your fruitful genius since I last had 
the pleasure of seeing you, you will by communicating it greatly 
oblige me. 

This man must have been one of the finest characters 
revealed in Watt's Hfe. Altho he left little behind 
him to ensure permanent remembrance, the extraordi- 
nary tributes paid his memory by friends establish 
his right to high rank among the coterie of eminent 
men who surrounded Watt and Boulton. Boulton 
records that " there being nothing which I wish to fix 
" in my mind so permanently as the remembrance of 
** my dear departed friend, I did not delay to erect a 
" memorial in the prettiest but most obscure part of my 
"garden, from which you see the church in which he 
"was interred." Dr. Darwin contributed the verses 
inscribed. Upon hearing of Small's illness Day 
hastened from Brussels to b^ present at the last hour. 

Keir writes, announcing Small's death to his brother, 
the Rev. Robert Small, in Dundee, "It is needless to 
** say how universally he is lamented; for no man ever 
" enjoyed or deserved more the esteem of mankind. 
* * We loved him with the tenderest affection and shall 
**ever revere his memory." 



104 LII^E OF JAMES WATT 

Watt's voliiminous correspondence with Professor 
Small, previous to his partnership with Boulton, 
proves Small at that time to have been his intimate 
friend and counsellor. We scarcely know in all liter- 
ature of a closer imion between two men. Many verses 
of Tennyson's Memorial to Hallam could be appro- 
priately applied to their friendship. Watt did not 
apparently give way to lamentations as Boulton and 
others did who were present at Small's death, probably 
because the receipt of Boulton's heart-breaking letter 
impressed Watt with the need of assuming the part 
of comforter to his partner, who was face to face with 
death, and had to bear the direct blow. Watt's tribute 
to his dear friend came later. 

Future operations necessarily depended upon the 
extension of the patent. Boulton, of course, could not 
proceed with the works. There was as yet no agree- 
ment between Watt and Boulton beyond joint owner- 
ship in the patent. At this time, Watt's most intimate 
friend of youthful years in Glasgow University, Pro- 
fessor Robison, was Professor of mathematics in the 
Government Naval School, Kronstadt. He secured 
for Watt an appointment at $5,000 per annum, 
a fortune to the poor inventor; but although this 
would have relieved him from dependence upon 
Boulton, and meant future affluence, he declined, 
alleging that "Boulton's favours were so gracefully 
'' conferred that dependence on him was not felt." 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 105 

He made Watt feel "that the obligation was entirely 
*' upon the side of the giver." Truly we must canonise 
Boulton. He was not only the first "Captain of 
" Industry," but also a model for all others to follow. 

The biU extending the patent was introduced in 
Parliament February, 1775. Opposition soon devel- 
oped. The mining interest was in serious trouble 
owing to the deepening of the mines and the unbear- 
able expense of ptunping the water. They had looked 
forward to the Watt engine soon to be free of patent 
rights to relieve them. "No monopoly," was their 
cry, nor were they without strong support, for Edmund 
Burke pleaded the cause of his mining constituents 
near Bristol.* 

We need not follow the discussion that ensued upon 
the propriety of granting the patent extension. Suffice 
to say it was finally granted for a term of twenty-four 
years, and the path was clear at last. Britain was to 
have probably for the first time great works and new 
tools specially designed for a specialty to be produced 
upon a large scale. Boulton had arranged to pay 
Roebuck $5,000 out of the first profits from the 
patent in addition to the $6,000 of debt cancelled. 
He now anticipated payment of the thousand, at 



* The mention of Burke and Bristol so soon after the note of Boulton upon Dr. Small's 
passing, recalls one of Burke's many famous sentences, one perhaps unequalled under the 
circumstances. The candidate opposing him for Parliament died during the canvass. When 
Burke next addressed the people after the sad event, his first words were : 

" What shadows we are ; what shadows we pursue." 



io6 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

the urgent request of Roebuck's assignees, giving in 
so doing pretty good evidence of his faith in prompt 
returns from the engines, for which orders came 
pouring in. New mechanical facihties followed, as 
well as a supply of skilled mechanics. 

The celebrated Wilkinson now appears upon the 
scene, first builder of iron boats, and a leading iron- 
founder of his day, an original Captain of Industry of 
the embryonic type, who began working in a forge 
for three dollars a week. He cast a cylinder eighteen 
inches in diameter, and invented a boring machine 
which bored it accurately, thus remedying one of 
Watt's principal difficulties. This cylinder was sub- 
stituted for the tin-lined cylinder of the triumphant 
Kinneil engine. Satisfactory as were the results of the 
engine before, the new cylinder improved upon these 
greatly. Thus Wilkinson was pioneer in iron ships, 
and also in ordering the first engine built at Soho — 
truly an enterprising man. Great pains were taken by 
Watt that this should be perfect, as so much depended 
upon a successful start. Many concerns suspended 
work upon Newcomen engines, countermanded orders, 
or refrained from placing them, awaiting anxiously the 
performance of this heralded wonder, the Watt engine. 
As it approached completion, Watt became impatient 
to test its powers, but the prudent, calm Boulton in- 
sisted that not one stroke be made until every possible 
hindrance to successful working had been removed. 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 107 

He adds, "then, in the name of Gk)d, fall to and do 
"your best." Admirable order of battle! It was 
" Be sure you're right, then go ahead," in the vernacular. 
Watt acted upon this, and when the trial came the 
engines worked "to the admiration of all." The news 
of this spread rapidly. Enquiries and orders for 
engines began to flow in. No wonder when we read 
that of thirty engines of former makers in one coal- 
mining district only eighteen were at work. The 
others had failed. Boulton wrote Watt to 

tell Wilkinson to get a dozen cylinders cast and bored. 
I have fixed my mind upon making from twelve to fifteen 
reciprocating engines and fifty rotative engines per annum. Of 
all the toys and trinkets we manufacture at Soho, none shall 
take the place of fire-engines in respect of my attention. 

The captain was on deck, evidently. Sixty-five en- 
gines per year — ^prodigious for these days — nothing like 
this was ever heard of before. Two thousand per year is 
the record of one firm in Philadelphia to-day, but let us 
boast not. Perhaps one hundred and twenty-nine years 
hence will have as great a contrast to show. The day of 
small factories, as of small nations, is past. Increasing 
magnitude, to which it is hard to set a limit, is the order 
of the day. 

So far all was well, the heavy clouds that had so 
long hovered menacingly over Boulton and Watt had 
been displaced once more by clear skies. But no new 
machinery or new manufacturing business starts 



io8^ LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

without accidents, delays and unexpected difficulties. 
There was necessarily a long period of trial and disap- 
pointment for which the sanguine partners were not 
prepared. As before, the chief trouble lay in the 
lack of skilled workmen, for although the few original 
men in Soho were remarkably efficient, the increased 
demand] for engines had compelled the employment 
of many new hands, and the work they could perform 
was sadly defective. Till this time, it is to be re- 
membered there had been neither slide lathes, planing 
machines, boring tools, nor any of the many other 
devices which now ensure accuracy. All depended upon 
the mechanics' eye and hand, if mechanics they could 
be called. Most of the new hands were inexpert and 
much given to drink. Specialisation had to be resorted 
to — one thing for each workman, in the fashioning of 
which practice made perfect. This system was intro- 
duced with success, but the training of the men took 
time. Meanwhile work already turned out and that 
in progress was not up to standard, and this caused 
infinite trouble. One very important engine was 
"The Bow" for London, which was shipped in Sep- 
tember. The best of the experts, Joseph Harrison, 
was sent to superintend its erection. Verbal instruc- 
tions Watt would not depend upon; Harrison was 
supplied in writing with detailed particulars covering 
every possible contingency. Constant communication 
between them was kept up by letter, for the engine 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 109 

did not work satisfactorily, and finally Watt himself 
proceeded to London in November and succeeded in 
overcoming the defects. Harrison's anxieties disabled 
him, and Boulton wrote to Dr. Fordyce, a celebrated 
doctor of that day, telling him to take good care of 
Harrison, "let the expense be what it will.'' Watt 
writes Boulton that Harrison must not leave London, 
as "a relapse of the engine would ruin our reputation 
** here and elsewhere." The Bow engine had a relapse, 
however, which happened in this way. Smeaton, then 
the greatest of the engineers, requested Boulton's 
London agent to take him to see the new engine. He 
carefully examined it, called it a "very pretty engine,*' 
but thought it too complicated a piece of machinery for 
practical use. There was apparently much to be said 
for this opinion, for we clearly see that Watt was far in 
advance of his day in mechanical requirements. 
Hence his serious difficulties in the construction of the 
complex engine, and in finding men capable of doing 
the delicately accurate work which was absolutely 
indispensable for successful working. 

Before leaving, Smeaton made the engineer a gift 
of money, which he spent in drink. The drunken 
engineman let the engine run wild, and it was thrown 
completely out of order. The valves — ^the part of the 
complicated machine that required the most careful 
treatment — ^were broken. He was dismissed, and, 
repairs being made, the engine worked satisfactorily at 



iio UFE OF JAMES WATT 

last. In Watt's life, we meet dnmkeimess often as a 
curse of the time. We have the satisfaction of know- 
ing that our day is much freer from it. We have 
certainly advanced in the cure of this e'i'il, for our 
working-men may now be regarded as on the whole 
a steady sober class, especially in Antrlc^a, where 
intempefBUce has not to be reckoned with. 

We see the difference between the reconstructed 
Kinneil eogine idiere Bcniltin's "mathematical instru- 
* ' ment maker's " standard of ~ : rkmanship was possible 
*' because has few trained men capable of such work 
"were employed." The Kinneil engine, compHcated 
as it was in its parts, being thus accurately recon- 
structed, did the work expected and more. The Bow 
engjnps and some others of the later period, constructed 
by ordinary- -?rorkiiien capable only of the "black- 
'* smith's " standard of finish, proved sources of infinite 
tcDoble. 

Watt had several cases of this kind to engross his 
attrition, all traceable to the one root, lack of the 
sldHed, sober woda uen^ and the tools of precision which 
liis complex (for his day, vey complex) steam engine 
required. The truth is that Watt's engine in one sense 
was bofn before its time. Our class of instrument- 
making mechanics and several new tools should have 
preceded it; then, the science of the invention being 
flottnd, its CQQStnictiQii would have been easy. The 
partoefs c ontimifd woddng in the right direction and 



BOULTOX PARTNERSHIP m 

in :!ir r.z'.z'. ~^=.j to create these nr^ir.! iiiiTiini 
ani ~ere in^ll £u ic^s^ul, bat tlf* ::ujii :iii: siirss 
bfoug^ an::!: s:ur:t :: 1:1:1: I'lt Z>:i;i::r 5 _^ 
they stnK± Cji^- : ni S: _^n fid ^e r-^:^: :z 
of their chief -rrirkinen r^e. ~liii liiry ~erf ^^tIt 
soc^t sf'er ml renciri 1: tI e liifir 7 .1 ::z5. 

str::i^ :r.i-;i:r.T-i5 :: lilr ;:5::::r.5 ::: ?._isia. Waxs 
es 3:-:::- --^7 5^ 1777 • " ^^ -- -i: heard 

fi: 5f:rr: :: ihe r=-:: ihiT Cir:f55 ;ni Webb 



having ''--" i^errl i:r six ve.irs. Tiir ~ fre 
prompthr ordered home t: 5:Ji: ^ni warranrs :*r- 
tamed for those who had au^npfccd r: iniure them 
to abscond (strange la^s ihese lays ! . even :i::_ch 
"Carless be a dnmken i^i : mci-iii—ely nif r.f 1 - 
"km." Conside- Watt s i^k : -7^1:1 : 1 — 7: 
the pfodoctioii ol bis ne" fn^irei : z Ti^iri :^ 
yood the h%hesT exisiir.c si^riini " .:..:.: :ir 

tocds and with r-cii ~ :^i::ien as C^ir e.i ' :~ !ie 
was glad to get anl iei^ rr - ec :: ii^^ec. ir_nken ini 
ttsekss as he was- 

Fraach agents appeared and tried 10 caibe seme :f 
the mea to go to Paris and ccnnirric;3.t; 
to the contractor who r 1 i r :* f -^ k e r : 
from the Sdne for the 5 : :y oi Paris 
states salt emis&irfi ::: .1 5 mil^r parr: 



112 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

Stein was specially ordered by his government to 
master the secret of the Watt engine, to obtain working 
plans, and bring away workmen capable of construct- 
ing it, the first step taken being to obtain access to the 
engine-rooms by bribing the workmen. All this is 
so positively stated by Smiles that we must assume 
that he quotes from authentic records. It is clear at 
all events that the attention of other nations was keenly 
drawn to the advent of an agency that promised to 
revolutionise existing conditions. Watt himself, at 
a critical part of his career (1773), as we have seen, 
had been tempted to accept an offer to enter the 
imperial service of Russia, carrying the then mimifi- 
cent salary of $5,000 per annvim. Boulton wrote 

him : " Your going to Russia staggers me 

** I wish to advise you for the best without regard 
* * to self, but I find I love myself so well that I 
'* should be very sorry to have you go, and I 
** begin to repent sounding your trumpet at the 
** Ambassador's." 

The imperial family of Russia were then much in- 
terested in the Soho works. The empress stayed for 
some time at Boulton's house, " and a charming woman 
" she is," writes her host. Here is a glimpse of imperial 
activity and wise attention to what was going on in 
other lands which it was most desirous to transplant 
to their own. The emperor, and no less his wife, 
evidently kept their eyes open during their travels 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 113 

abroad. Imperial progresses we fear are seldom 
devoted to such practical ends, although the present 
king of Britain and his nephew the German emperor 
would not be blind to such things. It is a strange 
coincidence that the successor of this emperor, Tsar 
Nicholas, '^when grand duke, should have been denied 
admission to Soho works. Not that he was per- 
sonally [objected to, but that certain people of his 
suite might not be disinclined to take advantage of 
any new processes discovered. So jealously were 
improvements guarded in these days. 

Another source of care to the troubled Watt lay here. 
Naturally, only a few such men had been developed 
as could be entrusted to go to distant parts in charge 
of fellow-workmen and erect the finished engines. 
A union of many qualities was necessary here. Man- 
agers of erection had to be managers of men, by far the 
most complicated and delicate of all machinery, 
exceeding even the Watt engine in complexity. When 
the rare man was revealed, and the engine -under his 
direction had proved itself the giant it was reputed, 
ensuring profitable return upon capital invested in 
works hitherto unproductive, as it often did, the saga- 
cious owner would not readily consent to let the 
engineer leave. He could well afford to offer salary 
beyond the dreams of the worker, to a rider who knew 
his horse and to whom the horse took so kindly. The 
engineer loved his engine, the engine which he had 



114 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

seen grow in the shop under his direction and which 
he had wholly erected. 

Mc Andrew's Song of Steam tells the story of the 
engineer's devotion to his engine, a song which only 
Kipling in our day could sing. The Scotch blood of 
the MacDonalds was needed for that gem; Kipling 
forttmately has it pure from his mother. McAndrew is 
homeward bound patting his mighty engine as she 
whirls, and crooning over his tale : 

That minds me of our Viscount loon — Sir Kenneth's 

kin — the chap 
Wi' Russia leather tennis-shoon an' spar-decked yachtin*- 

cap. 
I showed him roimd last week, o'er all — an' at the last 

says he: 
"Mister M 'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance 

at sea?" 
Damned ijjit! I'd been doon that mom to see what ailed 

the throws, 
Manholin', on my back — the cranks three inches off my 

nose. 
Romance! Those first-class passengers they like it very 

well. 
Printed an' bound in little books; but why don't poets 

tell? 
I'm sick of all their quirks an' turns — the loves and doves 

the)'' dream — 
Lord, send a man like Robbie Bums to sing the Song o* 

Steam! 
To match wi' Scotia's noblest speech yon orchestra 

sublime, 
Whaurto — uplifted like the Just — the tail-rods mark 

the time. 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 115 

The crank-throws give the double-bass, the feed-pump 

sobs an' heaves, 
An* now the main eccentrics start their quarrel on the 

sheaves : 
Her time, her own appointed time, the rocking link-head 

bides, 
Till — hear that note? — the rod's return whings glim- 

merin' through the guides. 
They're all awa'! True beat, full power, the clangin' 

chorus goes 
Clear to the tunnel where they sit, my purrin* dynamos. 
Interdependence absolute, foreseen, ordained, decreed, 
To work, yell note, at any tilt an' every rate o' speed. 
Fra* skylight lift to furnace-bars, backed, bolted, braced 

an' stayed. 
An' singin' like the Momin' Stars for joy that they are 

made; 
While, out o' touch o' vanity, the sweatin' thrust-block 

says: 
*'Not unto us the praise, oh man, not unto us the praise!" 
Now, a' together, hear them lift their lesson — theirs an' 

mine: 
"Law, Order, Duty an' Restraint, Obedience, Discipline! " 
Mill, forge an' try-pit taught them that when roarin* they 

arose. 
An' whiles I wonder if a soul was gied them wi' the blows. 
Oh for a man to weld it then, in one trip-hammer strain. 
Till even first-class passengers could tell the meanin' 

plain! 
But no one cares except mysel' that serve an' understand 
My seven-thousand horse-power here. Eh, Lord! 

They're grand — they're grand! 
Uplift am I ? When first in store the new-made beasties 

stood, 
Were ye cast down that breathed the Word declarin* all 

things good? 
Not so! O' that world-liftin' joy no after-fall could vex, 



ii6 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

YeVe left a glimmer still to cheer the Man — the Artifex! 
Thai holds, in spite o* knock and scale, o' friction, waste 

an' slip, 
An' by that light — now, mark my word — ^we'll build the 

Perfect Ship. 
Ill never last to judge her lines or take her curve — not I. 
But I ha' lived and I ha' worked. Be thanks to Thee, 

Most High! 

So the McAndrews of Watt's day were loth to part 
from their engines, this feeling being in the blood of 
true engineers. On the other hand, just such men, in 
numbers far beyond the supply, were needed by the 
builders, who in one sense were almost if not quite as 
deeply concerned as the owners, in having proved, 
capable, engine managers remain in charge of their 
engines, thus enhancing their reputation. Endless 
trouble ensued from the lack of managing enginemen, 
a class which had yet to be developed, but which 
was sure to arise in time through the educative policy 
adopted, which was already indeed slowly producing 
fruit. 

Meanwhile, to meet the present situation. Watt 
resolved to simplify the engine, taking a step back- 
ward, which gives foimdation for Smeaton's acute 
criticism upon its complexity. We have seen that 
the working of steam expansively was one of Watt's 
early inventions. Some of the new engines were made 
upon this plan, which involved the adoption of some 
of the most troublesome of the machinery. It was 



BOULTON PARTNERSHIP 117 

ultimately decided that to operate this was beyond the 
abiHty of the obtainable enginemen of the day. 

It must not be understood that expansion was 
abandoned. On the contrary, it was again introduced 
by Watt at a later stage and in better form. Since his 
time it has extended far beyond what he coiild have 
ventured upon under the conditions of that day. 
"Yet," as Kelvin says, "the triple and quadruple ex- 
"pansion engine of our day all lies in the principle 
"Watt had so fully developed in his day." 



Removal to Birmingham 



CHAPTER VI 
Removal to Birmingham 

WATT'S permanent settlement in Birmingham 
had for some time been seen to be inevitable, 
all his time being needed there. Domestic matters, in- 
cluding the care of his two children, with which he had 
hitherto been burdened, pressed hard upon him, and 
he had been greatly depressed by finding his old father 
quite in his dotage, although he was not more than 
seventy-five. Watt was alone and very unhappy 
during a visit he made to Greenock. 

Before returning to Birmingham, he married Miss 
MacGregor, daughter of a Glasgow man of affairs, who 
was the first in Britain to use chlorine for bleaching, 
the secret of which BerthoUet, its inventor, had com- 
municated to Watt. 

Pending the marriage, it was advisable that the 
partnership with Boulton as hitherto agreed upon should 
be executed. Watt writes so to Boulton, and the 
arrangement between the partners is indicated by the 
following passage of Watt's letter to him : 

As you may have possibly mislaid my missive to you concerning 

the contract, I beg just to mention what I remember of the terms. 

I. I to assign to you two-thirds of the property of the invention. 

121 



122 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

a. You to pay all expenses of the Act or others incurred before 
June, 1775 (the date of the Act), and also the expense of future 
experiments, which money is to be sunk without interest by you, 
being the consideration you pay for your share. 

3. You to advance stock-in-trade bearing interest, but having 
no claim on me for any part of that, further than my intromissions; 
the stock itself to be your security and property. 

4. I to draw one-third of the profits so soon as any arise from 
the business, after paying the workmen's wages and goods furnished, 
but abstract from the stock-in-trade, excepting the interest thereof, 
which is to be deducted before a balance is struck. 

5. I to make drawings, give directions, and make surveys, the 
company paying for the travelling expenses to either of us when 
upon engine business. 

6. You to keep the books and balance them once a year. 

7. A book to be kept wherein to be marked such transactions as 
are worthy of record, which, v/hen signed by both, to have the 
force of the contract. 

8. Neither of us to alienate our share of the other, and if either 
of us by death or otherwise shall be incapacitated from acting for 
ourselves, the other of us to be the sole manager without contra- 
diction or interference of heirs, executors, assignees or others; but 
the books to be subject to their inspection, and the acting partner 
of us to be allowed a reasonable commission for extra trouble. 

9. The contract to continue in force for twenty-five years, from 
the ist of June, 1775, when the partnership commenced, notwith- 
standing the contract being of later date. 

10. Our heirs, executors and assignees bound to observance. 

11. In case of demise of both parties, our heirs, etc., to succeed 
in same manner, and if they all please, they may bum the contract. 

If anything be very disagreeable in these terms, you will find me 
disposed to do everything reasonable for your satisfaction. 

Boulton's reply was entirely satisfactory, and upon 
this basis the arrangement was closed. 

Watt, with his usual want of confidence in himself 
in business affairs, was anxious that Boulton should 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 123 

come to him at Glasgow and arrange all pecimiary 
m^atters connected with the marriage. Watt had 
faced the daughter and conquered, but trembled at 
the thought of facing the father-in-law. He appeals 
to his partner as follows : 

I am afraid that I shall otherwise make a very bad bargain in money 
matters, which wise men like you esteem the most essential part, 
and I myself, although I be an enamoured swain, do not altogether 
despise. You may perhaps think it odd that in the midst of my 
friends here I should call for 3'our help; but the fact is that from 
several reasons I do not choose to place that confidence in any of 
my friends here that would be necessary in such a case, and I do 
not know any of them that have more to say with the gentleman in 
question than I have myself. Besides, you are the only person 
who can give him satisfactory information concerning my situation. 

This being impracticable, as explained by Boulton, 
who thoroughly approved of the union, the partner- 
ship and Boulton 's letter were accepted by the judicious 
father-in-law as satisfactory evidence that his daugh- 
ter's future was secure. Boulton states in his letter, 
July, 1776: 

It may be difficult to sa}'- what is the value of your property in 
partnership with me. However, I will give it a name, and I do say 
that I would -^-illingly give you two, or perhaps three thousand 
pounds for your assignment of your third part of the Act of Par- 
liament. But I should be sorry to make you so bad a bargain, or 
to make any bargain at all that tended to deprive me of your friend- 
ship, acquaintance, and assistance, hoping that we shall harmoni- 
ously live to wear out the twenty-five years, which I had rather 
do than gain a Nabob's fortune by being the sole proprietor. 

This is the kind of expression from the heart to 
make a partner happy and resolve to do his utmost 



124 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

for one who in the recipient's heart had transposed 
positions, and is now friend first, and partner after- 
ward. 

The marriage took place in July, 1776. Two children 
were bom, both of whom died in youth. Mrs. Watt 
lived until a ripe old age and enjoyed the fruits of her 
husband's success and fame. She died in 1832. Arago 
praises her, and says "Various talents, sound judgment, 
and strength of mind rendered her a worthy com- 
panion." 

It is difficult to realise that many yet with us were 
contemporaries of Mrs. Watt, and not a few yet living 
were contemporaries of Watt himself, for he did not 
pass away tmtil 181 9, eighty-six years ago, so much 
a thing of yesterday is the material development and 
progress of the world, which had its basis, start and 
accompHshment in the steam engine. 

The reasons given by Boulton for being unable to 
proceed to the side of his friend and partner in Glasgow, 
shed clear light upon the condition of affairs at Soho. 
Their London agent, like Watt, was also to be married 
and wotdd be absent. Fothergill had to proceed to 
London. Scale, one of the managers, was absent. 
Important visitors were constantly arriving. Said 
Boulton : 

Our copper bottom hath plagued us very much by steam leaks, 
and therefore I have had one cast (with its conducting pipe) all in 
one piece; since which the engine doth not take more than 10 feet 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 125 

of steam, and I hope to reduce that quantity, as we have just 
received the new piston, which shall be put in and at work to- 
morrow. Our Soho engine never was in such good order as at 
present. Bloomfield and Willey (engines) are both well, and I 
doubt not but Bow engine will be better than any of 'em. 

He concludes, '' I did not sleep last night, my mind 
*' being absorbed by steam." Means for increasing the 
heating surface swept through his mind, by applying 
**in copper spheres within the water," the present flue 
system, also for working steam expansively, ** being 
''clear the principle is sound." 

To add to Botdton's anxieties, he had received a 
summons to attend the Solicitor-General next week 
in opposition to Gainsborough, a clergyman who 
claimed to be the original inventor. "This is a dis- 
*' agreeable circumstance, particularly at this season, 
**when you are absent. Harrison is in London and 
** idleness is in our engine shop." 

Watt wrote Boulton on July 28, 1776, apologising 
for his long absence and stating he was now ready to 
return, and would start "Tuesday first" for Liverpool, 
where he expected to meet Boulton. Meanwhile, the 
latter had been called to London by the Gainsborough 
business. A note from him, however, reached Watt 
at Liverpool, in which he says, "As to yoiu: absence, 
**say nothing about it. I will forgive it this time, 
*' provided you promise me never to mn,rry again. ' ' 

In due time, Mr. and Mrs. Watt arrived and settled 
early in August, 1776, in Birmingham, which was 



126 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

hereafter to be their permanent home, although, as we 
shall see. Watt never ceased to keep in close touch 
with his native town of Greenock and his Glasgow 
friends. His heart still warmed to the tartan, the 
soft, broad Scotch accent never forsook him; nor, we 
mav be sure, did the refrain ever leave his heart — 

And may dishonour blot our name 

And quench our household fires, 
If me or mine forget thy name, 

Thou dear land of my Sires, 

Many a famous Scot has the fair South in 
recent times called to her — Stephenson, Ruskin, 
Carlyle, Mill, Gladstone and others — but never before 
or since, one whose work was the transformation of the 
world. 

At last we have Watt permanently settled along- 
side the great works to which he was hereafter to 
devote his rare abilities until his retirement at the 
expiration of the partnership in 1800. His labors 
at Soho soon began to tell. The works increased their 
celebrity beyond all others then known, for materials, 
workmanship and invention. 

The mines of Cornwall promised to become un- 
workable ; indeed, many already had became so. The 
Newcomen engines could no longer drain the deepened 
mines. Several orders for Watt engines had been re- 
ceived, and as much depended upon the success of the 
first. Watt resolved to superintend its erection him- 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 127 

self. Mrs. Watt and he started over the terrible road 
into Cornwall, and had to take up their abode with the 
superintendent of the mine, there being no other house 
for miles around. Naturally the builders and attend- 
ants of the Newcomen engine viewed Watt's invasion 
of their district with no kindly feelings. Great jealousy 
arose and Watt's sensitive nattire was sorely tried. 
Many attempts to thwart him were met with, and, taken 
altogether, his life in Cornwall was far from agreeable. 
The engine was erected, the day of trial came, mining 
men, engineers, mining proprietors and others assem- 
bled from all quarters to see the start. Many of the 
spectators interested in other engines wotdd not have 
shed tears had it failed, but it started splendidly making 
eleven eight-foot strokes per minute, which broke the 
record. Three cheers for the Scotch engineer ! It soon 
worked with greater power and more steadily, and 
"forked" more water than the ordinary engines with 
only about one-third the consumption of coal. Watt 
wrote : 

I understand all the west cotmtry captains are to be here to- 
morrow to see the prodigy. The velocity, violence, magnitude, and 
horrible noise of the engine give universal satisfaction to all behold- 
ers, believers or not. I have once or twice trimmed the engine 
to end the stroke gracefully and to make less noise, but Mr. 
Wilson cannot sleep without it seems quite furious, so I have left 
it to the engine-men ; and, by the by, the noise seems to convey 
great ideas of its power to the ignorant, who seem to be no more 
taken with modest merit in an engine than in a man. 

Well said, modest, reserved philosopher with vast 



128 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

horse-power in that big head of yours, working in the 
closet noiselessly, driving deep but silently into the 
bosom of nature's secrets, pumping her deepest mines, 
discovering and bringing to the surface the genius 
which lay in steam to do your bidding and revolu- 
tionise life on earth ! In this, the first triumph, there 
was recompense for all the trials Watt and his wife had 
endiired in Cornwall. 

Readers will note that no workman had yet been 
developed who could be trusted to erect the engine. 
The master inventor had to go himself as the mechan- 
ical genius certain to cure all defects and ensure success. 
This shows how indispensable Watt was. 

Orders now flowed in, and Watt was needed to prepare 
the plans and drawings, no one being capable of re- 
lieving him of this. To-day we have draftsmen by the 
thousand to whom it would be easy routine work, as we 
have thousands to whom the erection of the Watt engine 
would be play. Watt was everywhere. At length he 
had to confess that ** a very little more of this hurrying 
" and vexation would knock me up altogether. ' ' At this 
moment he had just been called to return to Cornwall 
to erect the second engine. He says " I fancy I must 
" be cut in pieces and a portion sent to every tribe in 
"Israel." We may picture him reciting in Falstaffian 
mood, "Would my name were not so terrible to the 
"enemy (deep-mine water) as it is. There can't a 
"drowned-out mine peep its head out but I'm thrust 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 129 

" upon it. Well, well, it always was the trick of my 
*' countrymen to make a good thing too common. 
*' Better rust to death than be scoured to nothing by 
*'this perpetual motion." 

Watt had a hard time of it in Cornwall during his 
next stay there, for he had to go again. He arrives at 
Redruth to find many troubles. 

Forbes' eduction-pipe is a vile job, he writes, and full of holes. 
The cylinder they have cast for Chacewater is still worse, for it 
will hardly do at all. The Soho people have sent here Chacewater 
pipe instead of Wheal Union, and the gudgeon pipe has not arrived 
with the nozzles. These repeated disappointments will ruin our 
credit in the country, and I cannot stay here to bear the shame of 
such failures of promise. 

It is easy for present-day captains of industry to 
plume themselves upon their ability to select men sure 
to succeed well with any undertaking, and assimie that 
Watt lacked the indispensable talent for selection, but 
he had been driven by sad experience to trust none but 
himself, the skilled workmen needed to co-operate 
with him not yet having been developed. 

We have not touched upon another source of great 
anxiety to him at this time. The enterprising Boulton 
would not have been the organiser he was unless 
blessed with a sanguine disposition and the capacity for 
shedding troubles. The business was rapidly extend- 
ing in many branches, all needing capital; the engine 
business, promising though it was, was no exception. 
Little money was yet due from sales and much had been 



I30 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

spent developing the invention. Boulton's letter 4x5 
Watt constantly urged cash collections, while mine- 
owners were not disposed to pay until further tests 
were made. Boulton suggested loans from Truro 
bankers on security of the engines, but Watt found 
this impracticable. The engines were doing astonish- 
ingly well to-day, but who could ensure their lasting 
qualities? Watt shows good judgment in suggesting 
that Wilkinson, the famous foundryman, should be 
taken into partnership. He urges his enterprising 
partner to apply the pruning knife and cut down ex- 
penses naively assuring him that "he was practising 
"all the frugality in his power." As Watt's personal 
expenses then were only ten dollars per week, a smile 
rises at the prudent Scot's possible contribution to 
reduction in expenditure. But he was on the right 
lines, and at least gave Boulton the benefit of example. 
Watt was never disposed to look on the bright side of 
things, and to add to Boulton's load, the third partner, 
Fothergill, was even more desponding than Watt. 
When Boulton went away to raise means, he was 
pursued by letters from Fothergill telling him day by 
day of imperative needs. In one he was of opinion 
that "the creditors must be called together; better to 
"face the worst than to go on in the neck-and-neck 
" race with ruin." Boulton would hurry back to quiet 
Fothergill and keep the ship afloat. Here he shines 
out resplendently. He proved equal to the emergency. 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 



131 



His courage and determination rose in proportion to 
the difficulties to be overcome, borne up by his in- 
variable hope and unshakable belief in the value of 
Watt's condensing engine, he triumphed at last, 
pledging, as security for a loan of $70,000, the royalties 
derivable from the engine patents, and an annuity for 
a loan of $35,000 more. So small a sum as $105,000 
sufficed to keep afloat the big ship laden with all their 
treasures. 

There was a period of great depression in Britain 
when Boulton and Watt were thus in deep water, and 
at such times credit is sensitive in the extreme. A 
small balance on the right side performs wonders. 
This recalls to the writer how, once in the history of 
his own firm, credit was kept high during a panic 
by using the identical sum Boulton raised, $70,000, 
from a reserve fund that had been laid away 
and came in very opportunely at the critical time. 
Every single dollar weighs a hundredfold when credit 
trembles in the balance. A leading nerve specialist 
in New York once said that the worst malady he 
had to treat was the man of affairs whose credit was 
suspected. His unfailing remedy was: "Call your 
" creditors together, explain all and ask their support. 
"I can then do you some good, but not till then." 
His patients who did this found themselves restored to 
vigor. They were supported by creditors and all was 
bright once more. The wise doctor was sound in his 



132 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

advice. If the firm has neither speculated nor gambled 
(synon3rmous terms), nor lived extravagantly, nor en- 
dorsed for others, and the business is on a solid founda- 
tion, no people have so much at stake in sustaining it 
as the creditors ; they will rally round it and think more 
of the firm than ever, because they will see behind their 
money the best of all securities — ^men at the helm who 
are not afraid and know how to meet a storm. 

Boulton's timid partners no doubt were amazed that 
he was so blind to the dangers which they with clearer 
vision saw so clearly. How deluded they were. We 
may be sure neither of them saw the danger half as 
vividly as he, but it is not the part of a leader to reveal 
to his fellows all that he sees or fears. His part is to look 
dangers steadily in the face and challenge them. It 
is the great leader who inspires in his followers contempt 
for the danger which he sees in much truer proportion 
than they. This Boulton did, for behind all else in his 
character there lay the indomitable will, the do or die 
resolve. He had staked his life upon the hazard of a 
die and he would stand the cost. "But if we fail," 
often said the timid pair to him, as Macbeth did 
to his resolute partner, and the same answer came, 
" We fail. " That's all. ' ' One knockdown will not finish 
" this fight. We'll get up again, never fear. We know 
" no such word as fail." * 



* Perhaps there is no instance so striking as this of the immense difference that 
sometimes lies in the mere accent given one monosyllable. Until Mrs. Siddons 
revealed the real Lady Macbeth, every actress had replied, "We fail?" interroga- 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 133 

One source of serious trouble arose from Watt and 
Boulton having been so anxious at first to introduce 
their engines that they paid small regard to terms. 
When their success was proved, they offered to settle, 
taking one-third the value of the fuel saved. This 
was a liberal offer, for, in addition to the mine- 
owners saving two-thirds of the former cost of fuel 
consumed by the previous engines, mines became work- 
able, which without the Watt engine must have been 
abandoned. These terms however were not accepted, 
and a long series of disputes arose, ending in some cases 
only with the patent-right itself. It was resolved that 
all future engines should be furnished only upon the 
terms before stated. Watt declaring that otherwise he 
would not put pen to paper to make new drawings. 
"Let our terms be moderate," he writes, ''and, if 
"possible, consolidated into money a priori , and it is 
*' certain we shall get some money, enough to keep us 
" out of jail, in continual apprehension of which I live at 
"present." Imprisonment for debt, let it be remem- 
bered, had not been abolished. One of the most bene- 
ficent forward steps that our time can boast of is the 



lively, and then encouragingly, "Screw your courage to the sticking-point and we'll 
" not fail." Such the commonplace reciters. When genius touched the word it 
flashed and sparkled. Then came the prompt response, "We fail." She was 
of such stuff as meets failure without fear. For this revelation the actress becomes 
immortal, since her name is linked with the greatest son of time. One word did it, 
nay a new accent upon a monosyllable — a trifling change say you? "I make it a 
" rule never to mind trifles," said a great man. "So should I if I could only tell what 
" were trifles," said a greater. One is far on if he can predict consequences that may 
flow from one kind word or the intonation of a word. Fortune sometimes hangs 
upon a glance or nod of kindly recognition as we pass. 



134 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

Bankruptcy Court, However hard we may yet be upon 
offenders against us, society, through humane laws, 
forgives our debtors in money matters, and gives a 
clear bill of health after honorable acquittal in bank- 
ruptcy, and a fresh start. 

The result proved Watt's wisdom. His engines 
were needed to save the mines. No other could. 
Applications came in freely upon his terms, and as 
Watt was a poor hand at bargaining, he insisted that 
Boulton should come to Cornwall and attend to that 
part. 

Meanwhile great attention was being paid to the 
works and all pertaining to the men and methods. 
The firm established perhaps the first benefit society of 
workmen. Every one was a member and contributed 
according to his earnings. Out of this fund payments 
were made to the sick or disabled in varying amounts. 
No member of the Soho Friendly Society, except a few 
irreclaimable drunkards, ever came upon the parish. 

When Boulton 's son came of age, seven hundred were 
dined. No well-behaved workman was ever turned 
adrift. Fathers employed introduced their sons into 
the works and brought them up under their own eye, 
watching over their conduct and mechanical training. 
Thus generation after generation followed each other 
at Soho works. 

On another occasion Boulton writes Watt in Corn- 
wall, "I have thought it but respectful to give our 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 135 

" folks a dinner to-day. There were present Murdoch, 
**Lawson, Pearson, Perkins, Malcom, Robert Muir, all 
** Scotchmen, John Bull and Wilson and self, for the 
" engines are now all finished and the men have 
** behaved well and are attached to us." 

Six Scotch and three English in the English works 
of Soho thought worthy of dining with their employer ! 
It was, we may be sure, a very rare occurrence in that 
day, but worthy of the true captain of industry. Here 
is an early ''invasion" from the north. We are re- 
minded of Sir Charles Dilke's statement in his '' Greater 
" Britain," that, in his tour round the world, he found 
ten Scotchmen for every Englishman in high position. 
Owing, of course, to the absence of scope at home the 
Scot has had to seek his career abroad. 

A master-stroke this, probably the first dinner of its 
kind in Britain, and no doubt more highly appreciated 
by the honored guests than an advance in wages. Splen- 
did workmen do not live upon wages alone. Apprecia- 
tion felt and shown by their employer, as in this case, is 
the coveted reward. 

We have read how Watt was much troubled in 
Scotland with poor mechanics. Not one good crafts- 
man could he then find. After seeing Soho, where the 
standard was much higher, he declared that the Scotch 
mechanic was very much inferior ; he was prejudiced 
against them. Murdoch, however, the first Scot at 
Soho, soon eclipsed all, and no doubt under his wing 



136 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

other Scots gained a trial with the result indicated- 
It is very significant that even in the earHest days of 
the steam engine, Scotchmen should exhibit such talent 
for its construction, forecasting their present pre- 
emineDce in marine engineering. 

Small wonder that the Soho works became the model 
for all others. The last words in Boidton's letter, 
"an£ are attached to us," tell the story. No danger 
of strikes, of lockouts, or quarrels of any kind in 
such establishments as that of Boulton and Watt, 
who proved that they in r^m were attached to 
tlieir men. Mutual attachment between employers 
and employed is the panacea for all troubles — 
yes, better than a panacea, the preventer of 
troubles. 

After repeated calls from Watt, Boulton tock the 
;:-jrr.ry to GDmwall in October, 1778, although 
Fctartrill —as again uttering lamentable prophecies of 
impending ruin, and the London agent was imploring 
his presence there upon financial matters pressing in 
the extreme. Boulton succeeded in borrowing $io,cx>o 
from Truro bankers on the security of engines erected, 
and settled several disputes, getting $3,500 per year 
royalrr for one engine and $2,000 per year for another. 
At last, after nine years of arduous labor since the 
invaiticn ~as hailed as Ej.'.rssful, the golden har\'est 
so kmg t::; r:ted b^an to replenish the empty treasury. 
The .r.^a. vv HabiHties, howe^-er, remained a source of 



REMOVAL TO BIR^IIXGHAil 137 

oonstant anxiety. No remedy could be found against 
"this cx>nsmnption of the purse." 

Watt had again to encounter the lack of competent, 
sober workmen to run engines. The Highland blood 
led him at last into severe measures, and he insisted 
upon discharging two or tnree 01 tne most drunken. 
Here Boulton had great diSculrr in ris:r? '-'^ g ^rlm. 
Much had to be endured, and :;;a.i::n?-l ": uts ;f 
dninkenness overlooked, although sericus accidents 
resulted. At last two men appeared whose services 
proved invaluable — ^^lurdoch, already mentknied, and 
Law — one of wn:m :r:^me famous. Watt was 
absent when the former called and asked Boulton for 
employment. The young Scot was the son of a well- 
known millwright near Ayr who had made several 
improvements. His famous son worked with him. but 
being ambitious and hearing :f the fame of Boulton and 
Watt, he determined to seek entrance to Soho works 
and learn the highest order of handicraft. Boulton had 
told him that there was at present no place open, but 
noticing the strange cap the awkward young m^n h^l 
been dangling in his hands, he asked what it was ma ie 
of. " Timmer, " said the lad. " What, out of wood? " 
"Yes." ''Hew was it made?" "I t-amed it mysel' 
* * in a bit la they o ' my own making ' ' T :iis ~ a ? r r : ngh 
for that rare judge of merL Here was a n.-.:.-r.--l-: :m 
mechanic, certain. The young man w:i5 cr:mrtly 
engaged for two years at fifteen shillings per week when 



138 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

in shop, seventeen shillings when abroad, and eighteen 
shillings when in London. His history is the usual 
march upward until he became his employers* most 
trusted manager in all their mechanical operations. 
While engaged upon one critical job, where the engine 
had defied previous attempts to put it to rights, the 
people in the house where Murdoch lodged were awak- 
ened one night by heavy tramping in his room over- 
head. Upon entering, Murdoch was seen in his bed 
clothes heaving away at the bed post in his sleep, call- 
ing out " Now she goes, lads, now she goes." His heart 
was in his work. He had a mission, and only one — 
to make that engine go. 

Of course he rose. There's no holding down such a 
"dreamer" anywhere in this world. It was not only 
that he had zeal, for he had sense with it, and was 
not less successful in conqueriag the rude Cornishmen 
who had baffled, annoyed and intimidated Watt. He 
won their hearts. His ability did not end with curing 
the defects of machinery ; he knew how to manage men. 
At first he had to depend upon his physical powers. 
He was an athlete not indisposed to lead the strenuous 
life. He had not been very long in Cornwall before 
half a dozen of the mining captains, a class that had 
tormented poor, retiring and modest Watt, entered the 
engine-room and began their bullying tricks on him. 
The Scotch blood was up, Murdoch quietly locked the 
door and said to the captains, " Now then gentlemen. 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 139 

** you shall not leave until we have settled matters once 
"for all." He selected the biggest Cornishman and 
squared off. The contest was soon over. Murdoch 
vanquished the bully and was ready for the next. 
The captains, seeing the kind of man he was, offered 
terms of peace, hands were shaken all round and they 
parted good friends, and remained so. We are past 
that rude age. The skilled, educated manager of to-day 
can use no weapon so effectively with skilled men as 
the supreme force of gentleness, the manner, language 
and action of the educated man, even to the calm, 
low voice never raised to passionate pitch. He con- 
quers and commands others because he has command 
of himself. 

We must not lose sight of Murdoch. In addition to 
his rare qualities, he possessed mechanical genius. 
He was the inventor of lighting by gas, and it was he 
who made the first model of a locomotive. There was 
no emergency with engines, no accident, no blunder, 
but Murdoch was called in. We read with surprise 
that his wages even in 1780 were only five dollars 
per week. He then modestly asked for an advance, 
but this was not given. A present of one hundred 
dollars, however, was made to him in recognition 
of his unusual services. Probably the explanation 
of the failure to increase his wages at the time was 
that, owing to the condition of the business, no rise in 
wages could be made to one which would involve an 



I40 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

advance to others. Murdoch remained loyal to the 
firm, however, although invited into partnership by 
another. Afterward he received due reward. He 
had always a strong aversion to partnership, no doubt 
well founded in this case, for during many years failure 
seemed almost as likely as success. Watt has much to 
say in his letters about "William" (Murdoch), who, 
more than anyone, relieved him from trouble.* 

The bargainings with mine-owners brought on intense 
heartaches and broke Watt down completely. Boulton 
had to go to him again in Cornwall in the autumn of 
1779, and as usual succeeded in adjusting many dis- 
putes by wise compromises with the grasping owners 
which Watt's strict sense of justice had denied. Many 
of these had paid no royalties for years, others disputed 
Watt's unerring register of fuel consumption (another 
of his most ingenious inventions now in general use for 

* An American Murdoch was found in Captain Jones, the best manager of 
works of his day. He entered the service of the Carnegie Steel Company as a young 
mechanic at tv/o dollars per day, a perfect copy of Murdoch in many important 
respects. Reading Murdoch's history, we have found ourselves substituting the 
"captain," a title well earned on the field in the war for the Union, which he entered 
as a private. Once he was offered an interest in the firm, which would have made 
him one of the band of young millionaires. His reply was, "Thank you, don't want 
" to have anything to do with business. These works (Steel rail mills, Pittsburg) 
" give me enough to think of. You just give me a ' thundering salary." ' "All right, 
" Captain, the salary of the president of the United States is yours." Also like Mur- 
doch, he was an inventor. His principal invention, recently sustained by the 
Supreme Court, would easily yield from those who appropriated it and refused pay- 
ment, at least five millions of dollars in royalties. Captain Jones was bom in Penn- 
sylvania of Welsh parents. Murdoch won promotion at last, and was first super- 
intendent of one of the special departments, and later had general supervision of 
the mechanical department, becoming "the right hand man" of the firm. The 
young partners dealt generously with him, and treated him with reverence and 
affection to the end. He died in his eighty-fifth year. Captain Jones was injured 
at the works and passed away just as a touch of age came upon him, as many war 
veterans did. Fortunate is the firm that discovers a William Murdoch or a William 
Jones and gives him swing to do the work of an original in his own way. 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 141 

many purposes), a more heinous offense in his eyes than 
that of non-payment. "The rascaHty of man," he 
writes, " is almost beyond beHef." He never was more 
despondent or more irritable than now. No one was 
better aware of his weakness than himself. In short, 
his heartaches and nervousness unfitted him for 
business. As usual, he attributed his discouragement 
chiefly to his financial obligations. The firm was as 
hard pressed as ever. Indeed a new source of danger 
had developed. Fothergill's affairs became involved, 
and had it not been for Boulton's capital and credit, 
the firm of Boulton and Fothergill could not have 
maintained payment. This had caused a drain upon 
their resources. Boulton sold the estate which had 
come to him by his wife, and the greater part of his 
father's property, and mortgaged the remainder. It 
is evident that the great captain had taken in hand far 
too many enterprises. Probably he had not heard the 
new doctrine : " Put all your eggs in one basket and then 
' ' watch that basket. ' ' He had even ventured consider- 
able sums in blockade running during the American 
Revolutionary War. It was not without good reason, 
therefore, that the more cautious Scot addressed to 
him so many pathetic letters: "I beg of you to 
'* attend to these money matters. I cannot rest in my 
' ' bed until they have some determinate form. ' ' Watt's 
inexperience in money matters caused apprehensions 
of ruin to arise whenever financial measures were dis- 



142 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

cussed. He was at this time utterly wretched, and 
Mrs. Watt at last became anxious, long and bravely 
as she had hitherto borne up and striven to dispel her 
husband's fears. Never before had she ventured to 
speak to Boulton upon the subject. She now broke 
the silence and wrote him in Cornwall a touching 
letter, stating that her husband's health and spirits 
had become much worse since Boulton had left Soho. 
** I know there are several things that so prey upon his 
"mind as to render him perfectly miserable. They 
** never cross his mind, but he is rendered unfit to do 
*' anything for a long time." She describes these 
financial demons that torment him and begs that her 
writing should not be told to Watt, as it might only add 
to his troubles. The appeal brings Mrs. Watt before 
us in a most engaging light. 

A study of the problem was made upon Boulton 's 
return and he agreed to close two departments of the 
business which were so far unprofitable, thus entering 
upon the right path. The engine having proved itself 
indispensable, the demand for it was becoming great 
and pressing from various countries. To concentrate 
upon its manufacture was obviously the true policy. 
The great captain's enterprise was not often expended 
upon failures, and it is with pleasure we find that among 
the profitable branches which Boulton had encouraged 
Watt in introducing at Soho, was the copying-press, 
which Watt invented in 1778, and which we use to this 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 143 

day. In July of that year he writes Dr. Black that he 
has "lately discovered a method of copying writing 

* * instantaneously, provided it has been written within 
" twenty-four hours. I send you a specimen and will 

* * impart the secret if it will be of any use to you. It 
" enables me to copy all my business letters." He kept 
this secret for two years, and in May, 1780, secured a 
patent after he had completed details of the press and 
experimented with the ink. One hundred and fifty 
were made and sold. Thirty of these went abroad. It 
steadily made its way. Watt, writing some thirty years 
later, said it had proved so useful to him that it was 
well worth all the trouble of perfecting it, even if it 
brought no profit. 

We think of Watt and the steam engine appears. 
Let us however note the unobtrusive little copying- 
press on the table at his side. Extremes meet here. 
It would be difficult to name an invention more uni- 
versally used, in all offices where man labors in any 
field of activity. In the list of modest inventions of 
greatest usefulness, the modern copying-press must take 
high rank, and this we owe entirely to Watt. 

Of the same period as the copying-machine is his 
invention of a drying-machine for cloth, consisting of 
three cylinders of copper over which the cloth must turn 
over and under while cylinders are filled with steam, 
the cloth to be alternately wound off and on the two 
wooden rollers, by which means it will pass over three 



144 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

cylinders in succession. This machine was erected for 
Watt's father-in-law, Mr. MacGregor in Glasgow, by an 
ingenious mechanic, John Gardiner, often employed by 
Watt in earlier years. "This I apprehend," he writes 
to David Brewster in 1814, "to be the original from 
" which such machines were made. " When we consider 
the extent to which such steam drying-machines are 
used in our day, our estimate of the credit due to Watt 
cannot be small. The drying-machine is no unfit 
companion to the copying-machine. 

Watt revisited Cornwall in 1781 to make an inspec- 
tion of all the engines. Much he found needing atten- 
tion and improvement. His evenings were spent 
designing "road steam-carriages." This was before 
the day of railroads, and the carriages were to be 
driven by steam over the ordinary coach roads. He 
filled a quarto drawing-book with different plans for 
these, and covered the idea in one of his patent specifi- 
cations. Boulton suggested in 1781 that the idea of 
rotary motion should be developed, which Watt had 
from the first regarded as of prime importance. 
It was for this he had invented his original wheel 
engine, and in his first patent of 1769 he describes one 
method of securing it. It occurred to him that the 
ordinary engine might be adapted to give the rotary 
motion. He wrote from Cornwall to Boulton: "As 
" to the circular motion, I will apply it as soon as I can. " 
He prepared a model upon his return to Soho, using 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 145 

a crank connected with the working-beam of the engine 
for that purpose, which worked satisfactorily. There 
was nothing new in the crank motion; it was used on 
every spinning-wheel, grind-stone and foot-lathe turned 
by hand, but its application to the steam-engine was 
new. As early as 1771, he writes: 

I have at times had my thoughts a good deal upon the subject. 
In general, it appears to me that a crank of a sufficient sweep will 
be by much the sweetest motion, and perhaps not the dearest, if its 
durability be considered. ... I then resolved to adopt the crank. 
. . Of this I caused a model to be made, which performed 
to satisfaction. But being then very much engaged with other 
business, [I neglected to take a patent immediately, and having 
employed a blackguard of the name of Cartwright (who was after- 
ward hanged) , about this model, he, when in company with some 
of the same sort who worked at Wasborough's mill, and were com- 
plaining of its irregularities and frequent disasters,' told them he 
could put them in a way to make a rotative motion which would 
not go out of order nor stun them with its noise, and accordingly 
explained to them what he had seen me do. Soon after {which, 
John Steed, who was engineer at Wasborough's mill, took a patent 
for a rotative motion with a crank, and applied it to their engine. 
Suspicions arising of Cartwright 's treachery, he was strictly ques- 
tioned, and confessed his part in the transaction when too late to 
be of service to us. 

Overtures were made by Wasborough to exchange 
patents and work together, which Watt scornfully 
rejected. He writes: 

Though I am not so saucy as many of my countrymen, I have 
enough innate pride to prevent me from doing a mean action 
because a servile prudence may dictate it. ... I will never 
meanly sue a thief to give me my own again unless I have 
nothing left behind. 



146 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

His blood was up. No dealings with rascals ! 

July, 1 78 1, Watt had finished his studies, went 
to Penryn, and swore he had "invented certain new 
** methods of applying the vibrating or reciprocating 
" motion of steam or fire engines to produce a continued 
*' rotation or circular motion round an axis or centre, 
" and thereby to give motion to the wheels of mills or 
* ' other machines. ' * 

Watt proceeded to work out the plan of the rotary 
engine, stimulated by numerous inquiries for steam 
engines for driving all kinds of mills. He found that 
"the people in London, Manchester and Birmingham 
*' are steam-mill mad." 

During raany long years of trial with their financial 
troubles, inferior and drunken workmen, disappointing 
engines, Cornish mine-owners to annoy him, it is highly 
probable that Watt only found relief in retiring to his 
garret to gratify his passion for solving difficult mechan- 
ical problems. We may even imagine that from his 
serious mission — the development of the engine — 
which was ever present, he sometimes flew to the 
numerous less exhausting inventions for recreation, as 
the weary student flies to fiction. His mind at this 
period seems never to have been at rest. His volumi- 
nous correspondence constantly reveals one invention 
after another upon which he was engaged. A new 
micrometer, a dividing screw, a new surveying- 
quadrant, problems for clearing the observed distance 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 147 

of the moon from a star of the effects of refraction and 
parallax, a drawing-machine, a copying-machine for 
sculpture — anything and everything he used or saw 
seems immediately to have been subjected to the ques- 
tion: " Cannot this be improved? " usually with a re- 
sponse in the affirmative. 

As we have read, he had long studied the question of 
a locomotive steam carriage. In Muirhead's Biog- 
raphy, several pages are devoted to this. In his 
seventh "new improvement," in his patent of 1784, he 
describes "the principle and construction of steam 
*' engines which are applied to give motion to wheel 
" carriages for removing persons, goods, or other 
** matter from place to place, in which case the engines 
** themselves must be portable." Mr. Murdoch made a 
model of the engine here specified which performed 
well, but nothing important came of all this until 
1802, when the problem was instantly changed by 
Watt's friend, Mr. Edgeworth, writing him, "I have 
** always thought that steam would become the universal 
" lord, and that we should in time scorn post-horses. 
*' An iron railroad would he a cheaper thing than a road 
" of the common construction.'' Here lay in a few words 
the idea from which our railway system has sprung. 
Surely Edgeworth deserves to be placed among the 
immortals.* As in the case of the steamship, however, 



* Since the above was put in type I learn that in his forthcoming book upon 
"The Development of the Locomotive," which promises to become the standard, 
Mr. Angus Sinclair says: "The first suggestion of a railroad for goods transportation 



148 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

the indispensable steam engine of Watt had to furnish 
the motive power. The railroad is only the necessary- 
smooth track upon which the steam engine could 
perform its miracle. It is significant that steam power 
upon roads required the abandonment of the usual 
highway. So we may believe is the automobile to 
force new roads of its own, or to widen existing high- 
ways, rendering those safe under certain rules for speed 
of twenty miles per hour, or even more, when they were 
intended only for eight or ten. 

The reading lamp of Watt's day was a poor affair, 
and as he never saw an inefficient instrument without 
studying its improvement, he produced a new lamp. 
He wrote Argand of the Argand burner upon the sub- 
ject and for a long time Watt lamps were made at the 
Soho works, which gave a light surpassing in steadiness 
and brilliance anything of the kind that had yet ap- 
peared. He gives four plans for lamps, " with the reser- 
' * voir below and the stem as tall as you please. ' ' He also 
made an instrument for determining the specific gravity 
of liquids, and a year after this he " found out a method 
*' of working tubes of the elastic resin without dissolv- 
*' ing it. " The importance of such tubes for a thousand 
purposes in the arts and sciences is now appreciated. 

" appears to have been made before The Literary and Philosophical Society of New- 
" castle by a Mr Thomas, of Denton, in February, 1800. Two years later Richard 
" Edgeworth, father of the famous novelist, suggested that it should be extended for 
" the carrying of passengers." There is no record of Thomas's suggestion, as far as 
we know, but only tradition. Even if made, however, it seems to have lain dead. 
Edgeworth evidently knew nothing of it, and as it was his letter to Watt which seems 
first to have attracted public attention, the passage is allowed to stand as written. 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 149 

Watt gave much time to an arithmetical machine 
which he found exceedingly simple to plan, but he 
adds, " I have learnt by experience that in mechanics 
" many things fall out between the cup and the mouth. " 
He describes what it is to accomplish, but it remained 
for Babbage at a much later date to perfect the machine. 
A machine for copying sculpture amused him for a 
time but it was never finished. 

If any difficulty of a mechanical nature arose, people 
naturally turned to Watt for a solution. Thus the 
Glasgow University failed to get pipes for conveying 
water across the Clyde to stand, the channel of the 
river being covered with mud and shifty sand, full 
of inequalities, and subject to the pressure of a con- 
siderable body of water. Application was at last made 
to the recognised genius. If he could not solve it, who 
could? This was just one of the things that Watt 
liked to do. He promptly devised an articulated 
suction pipe with parts formed on the principle of a 
lobster's tail. This crustacean tube a thousand feet 
long solved the matter. Watt stated that his services 
were induced solely by a desire to be of use in procuring 
good water to the city of Glasgow, and to promote the 
prosperity of a company which had risked so much for 
the public good. These were handsomely acknowl- 
edged by the presentation to him of a valuable piece 
of plate. 

As another proof of Watt's habit of thinking of every- 



I50 . LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

thing that could possibly be improved, it may be news 
to many readers that the consumption of the smoke 
from steam engines early attracted his attention, and 
that he patented devices for this. These have been 
substantially followed in the numerous attempts which 
have been made from time to time to reduce the huge 
voltimes of smoke that keep so many cities under a 
cloud. He was successful and his son James writes to 
him in 1790 from Manchester: 

It is astonishing what an impression the smoke-consuming power 
of the engine has made upon everybody hereabouts. They scarcely 
trusted to the evidence of their senses. You would be diverted 
to hear the strange hypotheses which have been stated to account 
for it. 

This is all very well. It is certain that most of the 
smoke made in manufacturing concerns can be con- 
sumed, if manufacturers are compelled by law to erect 
sufficient heating surface and to include the well-known 
appliances, including those for careful firing, but no 
city so far as the writer knows has ever been able to 
enforce effective laws. There remain the dwellings of 
the people to deal with, which give forth smoke in 
large cities in the aggregate far exceeding that made 
by the manufacturing plants. New York pursues 
the only plan for ensuring the clearest skies of any 
large city in the world where coal is generally used, by 
making the use of bituminous coal unlawful. The 
enormous growth of present New York (45 per cent, 
in last decade) is not a little dependent upon the 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 151 

attraction of clear blue skies and the resulting clean- 
liness of all things in and about the city compared 
with others. When, by the progress of invention or 
new methods of distributing heat, smoke is banished, 
as it probably will be some day, many rich citizens will 
remain in their respective western cities instead of 
flocking to the clear blue-skied metropolis, as they are 
now so generally doing. 

Such were some of Watt's by-products. His recrea- 
tion, if found at all, was found in change of occupation. 
We read of no idle days, no pleasure trips, no vacations, 
only change of work. 

Rumors of new inventions of engines far excelling 
his continued to disturb Watt, and much of his time was 
given to investigation. He thought of a caloric air 
engine as possibly one of the new ideas; then of the 
practicability of producing mechanical power by the 
absorption and condensation of gas on the one hand 
and by its disengagement and expansion on the other. 
His mind seemed to range over the entire field of 
possibilities. 

The Hornblower engine had been heralded as sure 
to displace the Watt. When it was described, it proved 
to be as Watt said, "no less than our double-cylinder 
" engine, worked upon our principle of expansion. It is 
"fourteen years since I mentioned it to Mr. Smeaton.'* 
Watt had explained to Dr. Small his method of working 
steam expansively as early as May, 1769, and had 



152 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

adopted it in the Soho engine and also in the Shadwell 
engine erected in that year. 

We have seen before that Watt had to retrace his 
steps and abandon for a time in later engines what he 
had before ventured upon. 

The application of steam for propelling boats upon 
the water was, at this time (1788), attracting much 
attention. Boulton and Watt were urged to undertake 
experiments. This they declined to entertain, having 
their facilities fully employed in their own field, but 
finally Fulton, on August 6, 1803, ordered an engine 
from them from his own drawings, intended for this 
purpose, repeating the order in person in 1804. It was 
shipped to America early in 1805, and in 1807 placed 
upon the Clermont, which ran upon the Hudson River 
as a passenger boat, attaining a speed of about five 
miles an hour. This was the first steamboat that was 
ever used for passengers, and altho Fulton neither 
invented the boat nor the engine, nor the combination 
of the two, still he is entitled to great credit for over- 
coming inntimerable difficulties sufficient to discourage 
most men. Fulton, who was the son of a Scotsman 
from Dumfrieshire, visited Syminton's steamboat, the 
Charlotte Dundas, in Scotland, in 1801, and had seen 
it successfully towing canal boats upon the Forth and 
Clyde Canal. This was the first boat ever propelled by 
steam successfully for commercial purposes. It was 
subsequently discarded, not because it did not tow the 



REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM 153 

canal boats, but because the revolving paddle-wheels 
caused waves that threatened to wash away the canal 
banks. 

Several engines were sent to New York. The men 
in charge of one found on shipboard a pattern-maker 
going to America named John Hewitt. He settled 
in America January 12th, 1796, and became the father 
of the late famous and deeply lamented Hon. Abram 
S. Hewitt, long a member of Congress and afterward 
mayor of New York, foremost in many improve- 
ments in the city, the last being the Subway, just 
opened, which owes its inception to him. For this 
service, the Chamber of Commerce presented him with 
a memorial medal. Mr. Hewitt married a daughter of 
Peter Cooper, founder of the Cooper Institute, which 
owes its wonderful development chiefly to him. His 
children devote themselves and their fortunes to its 
management. At the time of his death in 1902, he was 
pronounced " the first private citizen of the Republic." 
Small engine-shops (of which the ruins still remain), 
called " Soho " after their prototype, were erected by his 
father near New York city, on the Greenwood division of 
the Erie Railroad. The raikoad station was called 
"Soho" by Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, who was then presi- 
dent of the railroad company. Upon Mr. Hewitt's 
eightieth birthday congratulations poured in from all 
quarters. One cable from abroad attracted attention 
as appropriate and deserved: " Ten octaves every note 



154 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

" truly struck and grandly sung." No man in private 
life passed away in our day with such general 
lamentation. The Republic got even more valuable 
material than engines from the old home in the ship 
that arrived on January 12, 1796. 

We must not permit ourselves to forget that it was 
not until the Watt engine was applied to steam naviga- 
tion that the success of the latter became possible. It 
was only by this that it could be made practicable, so 
that the steamship is the product of the steam-engine, 
and it is to Watt we owe the modern twenty-three- 
thousand-ton monster (and larger monsters soon to 
come), which keeps its course against wind and tide, 
almost " unshaked of motion," for this can now properly 
be said. Passengers crossing the Atlantic from port 
to port now scarcely know anything of irregular motion, 
and never more than the gentlest of slight heaves, even 
during the gale that 

"Catches the ruffian billows by their tops, 
"Curling their monstrous heads," 

The ocean, traversed in these ships, is a smooth 
highway — nothing but a ferry — and a week spent upon 

it has become perhaps the most enjoyable and the most 

healthful of holiday excursions, provided the prudent 

excursionist has left behind positive instructions that 

wireless telegrams shall not follow. 



Second Patent 



CHAPTER VII 
Second Patent 

THE number and activity of rivals attracted to 
the steam engine and its possible improvement, 
some of whom had begun infringements upon the Watt 
/patents, alarmed Messrs. Watt and Boulton so much 
that they decided Watt should apply for another 
patent, covering his important improvements since the 
first. Accordingly, October 25, 1 7 8 1 , the patent (already 
referred to on p. 91) was secured, "for certain new 
"methods of producing a continued rotative motion 
" aroimd an axis or centre, and thereby to give motion 
"to the wheels of mills or other machines." 

This patent was necessary in consequence of the 
difficulties experienced in working the steam wheels 
or rotatory engines described in the first patent of 1769, 
and by Watt's having been so unfairly anticipated, by 
Wasborough in the crank motion. 

No less than five different methods for rotatory 
motion are described in the patent, the fifth commonly 
known as the "sun and planet wheels," of which Watt 
writes to Boulton, January 3, 1782, 

I have tried a model of one of my old plans of rotative engines, 
revived and executed by Mr. Murdoch, which merits being included 

157 



158 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

in the specification as a fifth method; for which purpose I shall 
send a drawing and description next post. It has the singular 
property of going t\\*ice round for each stroke of the engine, and 
may be made to go oftener round, if required, without additional 
machinery. 

Then followed an explanation of the sketch which 
he sent, and two days later he wTote, " I send you the 
"dra^vings of the fifth method, and thought to have 
*' sent you the description complete, but it was late last 
** night before I finished so far, and to-day have a head- 
** ache, therefore only send you a rough draft of part." 

In all of these Watt recommended that a fly-wheel be 
used to regulate the motion, but in the specification for 
the patent of the following year, 1782, his double- 
acting engine produced a more regular motion and 
rendered a fly-wheel unnecessary, "so that," he says, 
* ' in most of otu: great manufactories these engines now 

* * supply the place of water, wind and horse mills, and 

* * instead of carr^^ing the work to the power, the prime 
" agent is placed wherever it is most convenient to the 
"manufacturer." 

This marks one of the most important stages in the 
development of the steam engine. It was at last the 
portable machine it remains to-day, and was placed 
wherever convenient, complete in itself and with the 
rotative motion adaptable for all manner of work. 
The ingenious substitutes Watt had to invent to avoid 
the obviously perfect crank motion have of course all 
been discarded, and nothing of these remains except as 



SECOND PATENT 159 

proofs, where none are needed, that genitis has powers 
in reserve for emergencies; balked in one direction, it 
hews out another path for itself. 

While preparing the specification for this patent of 

1 781, Watt was busy upon another specification quite 
as important, which appeared in the following year, 

1782. It embraced the following new improvements, 
the winnowing of numberless ideas and experiments 
that he had conceived and tested for some years 
previous : 

1. The use of steam on the expansive principle; together with 
various methods or contrivances (six in number, some of them 
comprising various modifications), for equalising the expansive 
power. 

2. The double-acting engine; in which steam is admitted to 
press the piston upward as well as downward; the piston being 
also aided in its ascent as well as in its descent by a vacuum pro- 
duced by condensation on the other side. 

3. The double-engine; consisting of two engines, primary and 
secondary, of which the steam-vessels and condensers commiinicate 
by pipes and valves, so that they can be worked either indepen- 
dently or in concert ; and make their strokes either alternately or 
both together, as may be required. 

4. The employment of a toothed rack and sector, instead of 
chains, for guiding the piston-rod. 

5. A rotative engine, or steam-wheel. 

Here we have three of the vital elements required 
toward the completion of the work: first, steam used 
expansively ; second, the double-acting engine. It will 
be remembered that Watt's first engines only took in 
steam at the bottom of the cylinder, as Newcomen's 



i6o LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

did, but w-ith this difference: Watt used the steam 
to perform work which Newcomen could not do, the 
latter only using steam to force the piston itself up- 
ward. Now came Watt's great step fon\-ard. Having a 
c^^linder closed at the top, while the Newcomen cylinder 
remained open, it was as easy to admit steam at the 
top to press the piston down as to admit it at the bot- 
tom to press the piston up; also as easy to apply his 
condenser to the steam above as below, at the moment 
a vacuum was needed. All this was ingeniously 
pro\'ided for b}' numerous de\'ices and covered by the 
patent. Third, he went one step farther to the com- 
poimd engine, consisting of two engines, primary and 
secondary, working steam expansively independently 
or in concert, with strokes alternate or simultaneous. 
The compound engine was first thought of by Watt 
about 1767. He laid a large drawing of it on parch- 
ment before parhament when soliciting an extension 
of his first patent. The reason he did not proceed to 
construct it was '* the difficult}' he had encoimtered in 
*' teaching others the construction and use of the single 
*' engine, and in overcoming prejudices " ; the patent of 
17S2 was only taken out because he found himself 
" beset with a host of plagiaries and pirates." 

One of the earliest of these double-acting engines 
was erected at the Albion Mills, London, in 1786. 
Watt writes : 

The mention of Albion Mills induces me to say a few words respect- 



SECOND PATENT i6i 

ing an establishment so unjustly calvaxanaXed in its day, and the 
premature destruction of which, by fire, in 1791, was, not improb- 
ably, imputed to design. So f^- from being, as misrepresented, a 
monopoly injurious to the public, it was the means of considerably 
reducing the p-rice of flour while it continued at work. 

The "double-acting" engine was followed by the 

" compoiind " engine, of which Watt says: 

A new compound engine, or m^ethod of connecting together the 
cylinders and condensers of two or more distinct engines, so as to 
make the steam which has been employed to press on the piston of 
the first, act expansively upon the piston of the second, etc., and 
thus derive an additional power to act either alternately or co- 
jointly with that of the first cylinder. 

We have here, in all substantial respects, the modem 
engine of to-day. 

Two fine improvements have been made since Watt's 
time: first, the piston-rings of Cartwright, which 
effectively removed one of Watt's m_ost serious diffioil- 
ties, the escape of steam, even though the best packing 
he could devise were used — the chief reascn he could 
not use high-presstire steam. In o^-ir day, the use of 
this is rapidly extending, as is that of superheated 
steam. Packing the piston was an elaborate operation 
even after Watt's day. 

It was not because Watt did not know as well as 
any of our present experts the advantages of high 
pressures, that he did not use them, but simply because 
of the mechanical difficulties then attending their 
adoption. He was always m advance of mechanical 
practicaHties rather than behind, and as we have 



i62 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

seen, had to retrace his steps, in the case of expansion. 

The other improvement is the cross-head of Haswell, 
an American, a decided advance, giving the piston 
rod a smooth and straight bed to rest upon and freeing 
it from all disturbance. The drop valve is now dis- 
placing the slide valve as a better form of excluding 
or admitting steam. 

Watt of course knew nothing of the thermodynamic 
value of high temperature without high pressure, 
altho fully conversant with the value of pressures. 
This had not been even imagined by either philosopher 
or engineer until discovered by Camot as late as 1824. 
Even if he had known about it the mechanical arts in 
his day were in no condition to permit its use. Even 
high pressures were impracticable to any great extent. 
It is only during the past few years that turbines and 
superheating, having long been practically discarded, 
show encouraging signs of revival. They give great 
promise of advancement, the hitherto insuperable 
difficulties of lubrication and packing having been 
overcome within the last five years. Superheating 
especially promises to yield substantial results as com- 
pared with the practice with ordinary engines, but the 
margin of saving in steam over the best quadruple 
expansion engine cannot be great. Lord Kelvin how- 
ever expects it to be the final contribution of science 
to the highest possible economy in the steam engine. 

In the January (1905) number of ''Stevens Institute 



SECOND PATENT 163 

** Indicator," Professor Denton has an instructive 
resume of recent steam engine economics. He tells us 
that Steam Turbines are now being applied to Piston 
Engines to operate with the latter 's exhaust, to effect 
the same saving as the siilphur dioxide cylinder; 
and adds 

that the Turbine is a formidable competitor to the Piston Engine 
is mainly due to the fact that it more completely realizes the 
expansive principle enunciated in the infancy of steam history as 
the fundamental factor of economy by its sagacious founder, the 
immortal Watt. 

Watt's favorite employment in Soho works late 
in 1783 and early in 1784 was to teach his engine, now 
become as docile as it was powerful, to work a tilt 
hammer. In 1777 he had written Boulton that 

Wilkinson wants an engine to raise a stamp of 15 cwt. thirty or 
forty times in a minute. I have set Webb to work to try it with 
the little engine and a stamp-hammer of 60 lbs. weight. Many of 
these battering rams will be wanted if they answer. 

The trial was successful. A new machine to work 
a 700 lbs. hammer for Wilkinson was made, and 
April 27, 1783, Watt writes that 

it makes from 15 to 50, and even 60, strokes per minute, and works 
a hammer, raised two feet high, which has struck 300 blows per 
minute. 

The engine was to work two hammers, but was 
capable of working four of 7 cwt. each. He says, with 
excusable pride, 

I believe it is a thing never done before, to make a hammer of 
that weight make 300 blows per minute; and, in fact, it is more a 



i64 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

matter to brag of than for any other use, as the rate wanted is 
from 90 to 100 blows, being as quick as the workmen can manage 
the iron under it. 

This most ingenious application of steam power 
was included in Watt's next patent of April 28, 
1784. It embraced many improvements, mostly, 
however, now of little consequence, the most celebrated 
being "parallel motion," of which Watt was prouder 
than any other of his triumphs. He writes to his son, 
November, 1808, twenty-four years after it was invented 
(1784): 

Though I am not over anxious after fame, yet I am more proud 
of the parallel motion than of any other mechanical invention 
I have ever made. 

He wrote Boulton, in June, 1784: 

I have started a new hare. I have got a glimpse of a method 
of causing a piston-rod to move up and down perpendicularly, hy 
only fixing it to a piece of iron upon the beam. . . I think 
it one of the most ingenious simple pieces of mechanism I have 
contrived. - 

October, 1784, he writes: 

The new central perpendicular motion answers beyond expecta- 
tion, and does not make the shadow of a noise. 

He says: 

When I saw it in movement, it afforded me all the pleasure 
of a novelty, as if I had been examining the invention of another. 

When beam-engines were universally used for pump- 
ing, this parallel motion was of great advantage. It 
has been superseded in our day, by improved piston 
guides and cross-heads, the construction of which in 



SECOND PATENT 165 

Watt's day was impossible, but no invention has com- 
manded in greater degree the admiration of all who 
comprehend the principles upon which it acts, or who 
have witnessed the smoothness, orderly power and 
"sweet simplicity" of its movements. Watt's pride 
in it as his favorite invention in these respects is fully 
justified. 

A detailed specification for a road steam-carriage 
concludes the claims of this patent, but the idea of 
railroads, instead of common roads, coming later left 
the construction of the locomotive to Stephenson.* 

Watt's last patent bears date June 14, 1785, and was 

for certain newly improved methods of constructing furnaces or 
fire-places for heating, boiling, or evaporating of water and other 
liquids which are applicable to steam engines and other purposes, 
and also for heating, melting, and smelting of metals and their 
ores, whereby greater effects are produced from the fuel, and the 
smoke is in a great measure prevented or consumed. 

The principle, "an old one of my own," as Watt says, 
is in great part acted upon to-day. 

So numerous were the improvements made by Watt 

at various periods, which greatly increased the utility 

of his engine, it would be in vain to attempt a detailed 

recital of his endless contrivances, but we may mention 



* Sinclair's "Development of the Locomotive" tends to deprive Stephenson of some 
part of his fame as inventor. Much importance is attached to Hedley's "Pufl5ng 
"Billy," 1813, which is pronounced to have been a commercial success. Sinclair, 
however, credits Stephenson with doing most of all men to introduce the Locomo- 
tive. As the final verdict may admit Hedley and cannot expel Stephenson from 
the temple of fame, we pass the sentence as written, leaving to future disputants to 
adjust rival claims. 



i66 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

as highly important, the throttle-valve, the governor, 
the steam-gauge and the indicator. Muirhead says : 

The throttle- valve is worked directly by the engineer to start or 
stop the engine, and also to regulate the supply of steam. Watt 
describes it as a circular plate of metal, having a spindle fixed 
across its diameter, the plate being accurately fitted to an aperture 
in a metal ring of some thickness, through the edgeway of which 
the spindle is fitted steam-tight, and the ring fixed between the two 
flanches of the joint of the steam-pipe which is next to the cylinder. 
One end of the spindle, which has a square upon it, comes through 
the ring, and has a spanner fixed upon it, by which it can be turned 
in either direction. When the valve is parallel to the outsides of 
the ring, it shuts the opening nearly perfectly; but when its plane 
lies at an angle to the ring, it admits more or less steam according 
to the degree it has opened ; consequently the piston is acted upon 
with more or less force. 

Papin preferred gunpowder as a safer source of 
power than steam, but that was before it had been 
automatically regulated by the "Governor." The 
governor has always been the writer's favorite in- 
vention, probably because it was the first he fully 
understood. It is an application of the centrifugal 
principle adapted and mechanically improved. Two 
heavy revolving balls swing rotmd an upright rod. 
The faster the rod revolves the farther from it the 
balls swing out. The slower it turns the closer the 
balls fall toward it. By proper attachments the valve 
openings admitting steam are widened or narrowed 
accordingly. Thus the higher speed of the engine, the 
less steam admitted, the slower the speed the more 
steam admitted. Hence any uniform speed desired 
can be maintained: should the engine be called upon 



SECOND PATENT 167 

to perform greater service at one moment than another, 
as in the case of steel rolling mills, speed being checked 
when the piece of steel enters the rolls, immediately the 
valves widen, more steam rushes into the engine, and 
vice versa. Until the governor came regular motion 
wac impossible — steam was an unruly steed. 

Arago describes the steam-gauge thus : 

It is a short glass tube with its lower end immersed in a cistern 
of mercury, which is placed within an iron box screwed to the 
boiler steam-pipe, or to some other part communicating freely 
with the steam, which, pressing on the surface of the mercury in 
the cistern, raises the mercury in the tube (which is open to the air 
at the upper end) , and its altitude serves to show the elastic power 
of the steam over that of the atmosphere. 

The indicator he thus describes : 

The barometer being adapted only to ascertain the degree of 
exhaustion in the condenser where its variations were small, the 
vibrations of the mercury rendered it very difficult, if not imprac- 
ticable, to ascertain the state of the exhaustion of the cylinder at 
the different periods of the stroke of the engine; it became there- 
fore necessary to contrive an instrument for that purpose that 
should be less subject to vibration, and should show nearly the 
degree of exhaustion in the cylinder at all periods. The following 
instrument, called the Indicator, is found to answer the end suf- 
ficiently. A cylinder about an inch diameter, and six inches long, 
exceedingly truly bored, has a solid piston accurately fitted to it, 
so as to slide easy by the help of some oil ; the stem of the piston is 
guided in the direction of the axis of the cylinder, so that it may 
not be subject to jam, or cause friction in any part of its motion. 
The bottom of this cylinder has a cock and small pipe joined to it 
which, having a conical end, may be inserted in a hole drilled in 
the cylinder of the engine near one of the ends, so that, by opening 
the small cock, a communication may be effected between the 
inside of the cylinder and the indicator. 

The cylinder of the indicator is fastened upon a wooden or 



1 68 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

metal frame, more than twice its own length; one end of a spiral 
steel spring, like that of a spring steel-yard, is attached to the 
upper part of the frame, and the other end of the spring is attached 
to the upper end of the piston-rod of the indicator. The spring is 
made of such a strength, that when the cylinder of the indicator is 
perfectly exhausted, the pressure of the atmosphere may force its pis- 
ton down within an inch of its bottom. An index being fixed to the 
top of its piston-rod, the point where it stands, when quite exhausted, 
is marked from an observation of a barometer communicating with 
the same exhausted vessel, and the scale divided accordingly. 

Improvements come in many ways, sometimes after 
much thought and after many experimental failures. 
Sometimes they flash upon clever inventors, but let us 
remember this is only after they have spent long years 
studying the problem. In the case of the steam, engine, 
however, a quite important improvement came ver^'' 
curiously. Humphrey Potter was a lad employed to turn 
off and on the stop cocks of a Newcbmen engine, a 
monotonous task, for, at every stroke one had to be 
turned to let steam into the boiler and another for 
injecting the cold water to condense it, and this had 
to be done at the right instant or the engine could not 
move. How to relieve himself from the drudgery 
became the question. He wished time to play with the 
other boys whose merriment was often heard at no 
great distance, and this set him thinking. Humphrey 
saw that the beam in its movements might serve to 
open and shut these stop cocks and he promptly began 
to attach cords to the cocks and then tied them at the 
proper points to the beam, so that ascending it pulled one 



SECOND PATENT 169 

cord and descending the other. Thus came to us perhaps 
not the first automatic device, but no doubt the first of 
its kind that was ever seen there. The steam engine 
henceforth was self -attending, providing itself for its own 
supply of steam and for its condensation with perfect 
regularity. It had become in this feature automatic. 

The cords of Potter gave place to vertical rods with 
small pegs which pressed upward or downward as 
desired. These have long since been replaced by other 
devices, but all are only simple modifications of a 
contrivance devised by the mere lad whose duty it was 
to turn the stop cocks. 

It would be interesting to know the kind of man this 
precocious boy inventor became, or whether he received 
suitable reward for his important improvement. We 
search in vain ; no mention of him is to be found. Let 
us, however, do our best to repair the neglect and 
record that, in the history of the steam engine, Hum- 
phrey Potter must ever be honorably associated with 
famous men as the only famous boy inventor. 

In the development of the steam engine, we have one 
purely accidental discovery. In the early Newcomen 
engines, the head of the piston was covered by a sheet 
of water to fill the spaces between the circular contour 
of the movable piston and the internal surface of the 
cylinder, for there were no cylinder-boring tools in 
those days, and surfaces of cylinders were most 
irregular. To the surprise of the engineer, the engine 



I70 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

began one day working at greatly increased speed, 
when it was found that the piston-head had been 
pierced by accident and that the cold water had passed 
in small drops into the cylinder and had con- 
densed the steam, thus rapidly making a more perfect 
vacuum. From this accidental discovery came the 
improved plan of injecting a shower of cold water 
through the cylinder, the strokes of the engine being 
thus greatly increased. 

The year 1783 was one of Watt's most fruitful years 
of the dozen which may be said to have teemed with his 
inventions. His celebrated discovery of the composi- 
tion of water was published in this year. The attempts 
made to deprive him of the honor of making this dis- 
covery ended in complete failure. Sir Humphrey Davy, 
Henry, Arago, Liebig, and many others of the highest 
authority acknowledged and established Watt's claims. 

The true greatness of the modest Watt was never 
more finely revealed than in his correspondence and 
papers published during the controversy. Watt wrote 
Dr. Black, April 21st, that he had handed his paper to 
Dr. Priestley to be read at the Royal Society. It 
contained the new idea of water, hitherto considered an 
element and now discovered to be a compound. Thus 
was announced one of the most wonderful discoveries 
found in the history of science. It was justly termed 
the beginning of a new era, the dawn of a new day in 
physical chemistry, indeed the real foundation for the 



SECOND PATENT 171 

new system of chemistry, and, according to Dr. Young, 

" a discovery perhaps of greater importance than any 

*' single fact which human ingenuity has ascertained 

" eicher before or since." What Newton had done for 

light Watt was held to have done for water. Muirfield 

well says: 

It is interesting in a high degree to remark that for him who had 
so fully subdued to the use of man the gigantic power of steam it 
was also reserved to unfold its compound natural and elemental 
principles, as if on this subject there were to be nothing which his 
researches did not touch, nothing which they touched that they 
did not adorn. 

Arago says: 

In his memoir of the month of April, Priestley added an important 
circumstance to those resulting from the experiments of his pre- 
decessors : he proved that the weight of the water which is deposited 
upon the sides of the vessel, at the instant of the detonation of the 
oxygen and hydrogen, is precisely the same as the weights of the 
two gases. 

Watt, to whom Priestley communicated this im- 
portant result, immediately perceived that proof was 
here afforded that water was not a simple body. 
Writing to his illustrious friend, he asks : 

What are the products of your experiment? They are water, 
light and heat. Are we not, thence, authorised to conclude that 
water is a compound of the two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, 
deprived of a portion of their latent or elementary heat ; that oxygen 
is water deprived of its hydrogen, but still united to its latent heat 
and light? If light be only a modification of heat, or a simple cir- 
cumstance of its manifestation, or a component part of hydrogen, 
oxygen gas will be water deprived of its hydrogen, but combined 
with latent heat. 



172 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

This passage, so clear, so precise, and logical, is 
taken from a letter of Watt's, dated April 26, 1783. 
The letter was communicated by Priestley to several of 
the scientific men in London, and was transmitted im- 
mediately afterward to Sir Joseph Banks, the President 
of the Royal Society, to be read at one of the meetings 
of that learned body. 

Watt had for many years entertained the opinion 
that air was a modification of water. He writes 
Boulton, December 10, 1782: 

You may remember that I have often said, that if water could 
be heated red-hot or something more, it would probably be con- 
verted into some kind of air, because steam would in that case have 
lost all its latent heat, and that it would have been turned solely 
into sensible heat, and probably a total change of the nature of the 
fluid would ensue. 

A month after he hears of Priestley's experiments, 
he writes Dr. Black (April 21, 1783) that he "believes 
*' he has foimd out the cause of the conversion of water 
" into air. ' ' A few days later, he writes to Dr. Priestley : 



In the deflagration of the inflammable and dephlogisticated airs, 
the airs unite with violence — ^become red-hot — and, on cooling, 
totally disappear. The only fixed matter which remains is water; 
and water, light, and heat, are all the products. Are we not then 
authorised to conclude that water is composed of dephlogisticated 
and inflammable air, or phlogiston, deprived of part of their latent 
heat; and that dephlogisticated, or pure air, is composed of water 
deprived of its phlogiston, and united to heat and light ; and if light 
be only a modification of heat, or a component part of phlogiston, 



SECOND PATENT 173 

then pure air consists of water deprived of its phlogiston and of 
latent heat? 

It appears from the letter to Dr. Black of April 21st, 
that Mr. Watt had, on that day, written his letter to 
Dr. Priestley, to be read by him to the Royal Society, 
but on the 26th he informs Mr. DeLuc, that having 
observed some inaccuracies of style in that letter, he 
had removed them, and would send the Doctor a cor- 
rected copy in a day or two, which he accordingly did 
on the 28th; the corrected letter (the same that was 
afterward embodied verbatim in the letter to Mr. DeLuc, 
printed in the Philosophical Transactions) , being dated 
April 26th. In enclosing it, Mr. Watt adds, "As to 
"myself, the more I consider what I have said, I am 
"the more satisfied with it, as I find none of the facts 
''repugnant." 

Thus was announced for the first time one of the 
most wonderful discoveries recorded in the history of 
science, startling in its novelty and yet so simple. 

Watt had divined the import of Priestley's experi- 
ment, for he had mastered all knowledge bearing 
upon the question, but even when this was com- 
municated to Priestley, he could not accept it, and, 
after making new experiments, he writes Watt, April 
29, 1783, "Behold with surprise and indignation the 
"figure of an apparatus that has utterly ruined your 
"beautiful hypothesis," giving a rough sketch with his 
pen of the apparatus employed. Mark the promptitude 



174 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

of the master who had deciphered the message which the 
experimenter himself could not translate. He im- 
mediately writes in reply May 2, 1783: 

I deny that your experiment ruins my hypothesis. It is 
not founded on so brittle a basis as an earthen retort, nor on its 
converting water into air. I founded it on the other facts, and 
was obliged to stretch it a good deal before it would fit this experi- 
ment. ... I maintain my hypothesis until it shall be shown 
that the water formed after the explosion of the pure and inflam- 
mable airs, has some other origin. 

He also writes to Mr. DeLuc on May i8th: 

I do not see Dr. Priestley's experiment in the same light that he 
does. It does not disprove my theory. . . . My assertion 
was simply, that air (t. e., dephlogisticated air, or oxygen, which 
was also commonly called vital air, pure air, or simple air) 
was water deprived of its phlogiston, and united to heat, which I 
grounded on the decomposition of air by inflammation with inflam- 
mable air, the residuum, or product of which, is only water and 
heat. 

Having, by experiments of his own, fully satisfied 
himself of the correctness of his theory, in November 
he prepared a full statement for the Royal Society, 
having asked the society to withhold his first paper 
until he could prove it for himself by experiment. 
He never doubted its correctness, but some members 
of the society advised that it had better be supported 
by facts. 

When the discovery was so daring that Priestley, 
who made the experiments, could not believe it 
and had to be convinced by Watt of its correct- 
ness, there seems little room left for other claimants, 



SECOND PATENT 175 

nor for doubt as to whom is due the credit of the 
revelation. 

Watt encountered the difficulties of different weights 
and measures in his studies of foreign writers upon 
chemistry, a serious inconvenience which still remains 
with us. 

He wrote Mr. Kirwan, November, 1783: 

I had a great deal of trouble in reducing the weights and meas- 
ures to speak the same language ; and many of the German experi- 
ments become still more difficult from their using different weights 
and different divisions of them in different parts of that empire. 
It is therefore a very desirable thing to have these difficulties re- 
moved, and to get all philosophers to use pounds divided in the 
same manner, and I flatter myself that may be accomplished if 
you, Dr. Priestley, and a few of the French experimenters will 
agree to it; for the utility is so evident, that every thinking person 
must immediately be convinced of it. 

Here follows his plan: Let the 

Philosophical pound consist of lo ounces, or 10,000 grains, 
the ounce " " 10 drachms or 1,000 '* 
the drachm *' " 100 grains. 

Let all elastic fluids be measured by the oimce measure of water, 
by which the valuation of different cubic inches will be avoided, 
and the common decimal tables of specific gravities will immediately 
give the weights of those elastic fluids. 

If all philosophers cannot agree on one pound or one grain, let 
every one take his own pound or his own grain ; it will affect nothing 
but doses of medicines, which must be corrected as is now done; 
but as it would be much better that the identical pound was used 
by all. I would propose that the Amsterdam or Paris pound be 
assumed as the standard, being now the most universal in Europe: 
it is to our avoirdupois pound as 109 is to 100. Our avoirdupois 
pound contains 7,000 of our grains, and the Paris pound 7,630 of 
our grains, but it contains 9,376 Paris grains, so that the division 



176 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

into 10,000 would very little affect the Paris grain. I prefer divid- 
ing the pound afresh to beginning with the Paris grain, because I 
believe the pound is very general, but the grain local. 

Dr. Priestley has agreed to this proposal, and has referred it to 
you to fix upon the pound if you otherwise approve of it. I shall 
be happy to have your opinion of it as soon as convenient, and to 
concert with you the means of making it universal. ... I 
have some hopes that the foot may be fixed by the pendulum and a 
measure of water, and a pound derived from that; but in the 
interim let us at least assume a proper division, which from the 
nature of it must be intelligible as long as decimal arithmetic is 
used. 

He afterward wrote, in a letter to Magellan : 

As to the precise foot or pound, I do not look upon it to be very 
material, in chemistry at least. Either the common English foot 
may be adopted according to your proposal, which has the advan- 
tage that a cubic foot is exactly 1,000 ounces, consequently the 
present foot and ounce would be retained; or a pendulum which 
vibrates 100 times a minute may be adopted for the standard, 
which would make the foot 14.2 of our present inches, and the 
cubic foot would be very exactly a bushel, and would weigh loi 
of the present pounds, so that the present pound would not be much 
altered. But I think that by this scheme the foot would be too 
large, and that the inconvenience of changing all the foot measures 
and things depending on them, would be much greater than chang- 
ing all the pounds, bushels, gallons, etc. I therefore give the 
preference to those plans which retain the foot and ounce. 

The war of the standards still rages — metric, or 
decimal, or no change. What each nation has is good 
enough for it in the opinion of many of its people. 
Some day an international commission will doubtless 
assemble to bring order out of chaos. As far as the 
English-speaking race is concerned, it seems that a 



SECOND PATENT 177 

decided improvement could readily be affected with 
very trifling, indeed scarcely perceptible, changes. 
Especially is this so with money values. Britain 
could merge her system with those of Canada and 
America, by simply making her ''pound" the exact 
value of the American five dollars, it being now only 
ten pence less ; her silver coinage one and two shillings 
equal to quarter- and half-dollars, the present coin to 
be recoined upon presentation, but meanwhile to pass 
current. Weights and measures are more difficult to 
assimilate. Science being world-wide, and knowing 
no divisions, should use uniform terms. Alas! at the 
distance of nearly a century and a half we seem no 
nearer the prospect of a system of universal weights 
and measures than in Watt's day, but Watt's idea is 
not to be lost sight of for all that. He was a seer who 
often saw what was to come. 

We have referred to the absence of holidays in Watt's 
strenuous life, but Birmingham was remarkable for a 
number of choice spirits who formed the celebrated 
Lunar Society, whose members were all devoted to the 
piirsuit of knowledge and mutually agreeable to one 
another. Besides Watt and Boulton, there were 
Dr. Priestley, discoverer of oxygen gas, Dr. Darwin, 
Dr. Withering, Mr. Keir, Mr. Galton, Mr. Wedgwood of 
Wedgwood ware fame, who had monthly dinners at 
their respective houses — hence the "Lunar" Society. 
Dr. Priestley, discoverer of oxygen, who arrived in 



178 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

Birmingham in 1780, has repeatedly mentioned the 
great pleasure he had in having Watt for a neighbor. 
He says: 

I consider my settlement at Birmingham as the happiest event 
in my life; being highly favourable to every object I had in view, 
philosophical or theological. In the former respect I had the con- 
venience of good workmen of every kind, and the society of persons 
eminent for their knowledge of chemistry; particularly Mr. Watt, 
Mr. Keir, and Dr. Withering. These, with Mr. Boulton and Dr. 
Darwin, who soon left us by removing from Lichfield to Derby, 
Mr. Galton, and afterwards Mr. Johnson of Kenilworth and myself, 
dined together every month, calling ourselves the Lunar Society, 
because the time of our meeting was near the full-moon — in order, 

as he elsewhere says, 

to have the benefit of its light in returning home. 

Richard Lovell Edgeworth says of this distinguished 
coterie: 

By means of Mr. Keir, I became acquainted with Dr. Small of 
Birmingham, a man esteemed by all who knew him, and by all who 
were admitted to his friendship beloved with no common enthusi- 
asm. Dr. Small formed a link which combined Mr. Boulton, Mr. 
Watt, Dr. Darwin, Mr. Wedgwood, Mr. Day, and myself together 
— men of very different characters, but all devoted to literature 
and science. This mutual intimacy has never been broken but by 
death, nor have any of the number failed to distinguish themselves 
in science or literature. Some may think that I ought with due 
modesty to except myself. Mr. Keir, with his knowledge of the 
world and good sense ; Dr. Small, with his benevolence and profound 
sagacity; Wedgwood, with his increasing industry, experimental 
variety, and calm investigation; Boulton, with his mobility, quick 
perception, and bold adventure; Watt, with his strong inventive 
faculty, undeviating steadiness, and bold resources; Darwin, with 
his imagination, science, and poetical excellence; and Day with 
his unwearied research after truth, his integrity and eloquence — 



SECOND PATENT 179 

proved altogether such a society as few men have had the good 
fortune to live with; such an assemblage of friends, as fewer still 
have had the happiness to possess, and keep through life. 

The society continued to exist until the beginning of 
the century, 1800. Watt was the last surviving 
member. The last reference is Dr. Priestley's dedica- 
tion to it, in 1793, of one of his works "Experi- 
''ments on the Generation of Air from Water," in 
which he says: 

There are few things that I more regret, in consequence of my 
removal from Birmingham, than the loss of your society. It both 
encouraged and enlightened me; so that what I did there of a 
philosophical kind ought in justice to be attributed almost as 
much to you as to myself. From our cheerful meetings I never 
absented myself voluntarily, and from my pleasing recollection 
they will never be absent. Should the cause of our separation 
make it necessary for to me remove to a still greater distance from 
you, I shall only think the more, and with the more regret, of our 
past interviews. . . . Philosophy engrossed us wholly. Pol- 
iticians may think there are no objects of any consequence besides 
those which immediately interest thejn. But objects far superior 
to any of which they have an idea engaged our attention, and the 
discussion of them was accompanied with a satisfaction to which 
they are strangers. Happy would it be for the world if their pur- 
suits were as tranquil, and their projects as innocent, and as friendly 
to the best interests of mankind, as ours. 

That the partners, Boulton and Watt, had such 
pleasiire amid their lives of daily cares, all will be glad 
to know. It was not all humdrimi money-making 
nor intense inventing. There was the society of 
gifted minds, the serene atmosphere of friendship in 
the high realms of mutual regard, best recreation of all. 



i8o LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

In 1786, qtdte a break in their daily routine took 
place. In that year Messrs. Boulton and Watt visited 
Paris to meet proposals for their erecting steam engines 
in France under an exclusive privilege. They were 
also to suggest improvements on the great hydraulic 
machine of Marly. Before starting, the sagacious 
and patriotic Watt wrote to Boulton : 

I think if either of us go to France, we should first wait upon 
Mr. Pitt (prime minister), and let him know our errand thither, 
that the tongue of slander may be silenced, all undue suspicion 
removed, and ourselves rendered more valuable in his eyes, because 
others desire to have us! 

They had a flattering reception in Paris from the 
ministry, who seemed desirous that they shoiild 
establish engine-works in France. This they abso- 
lutely refused to do, as being contrary to the interests of 
their country. It may be feared we are not quite so 
scrupulous in our day. On the other hand, refusal 
now would be fruitless, it has become so easy to obtain 
plans, and even experts, to build machines for any 
kind of product in any coimtry. Automatic machinery 
has almost dispelled the need for so-called skilled 
labor. East Indians, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese, 
all become more or less efficient workers with a few 
month's experience. Manufacturing is therefore to 
spread rapidly throughout the world. All nations 
may be trusted to develop, and if necessary for a time 
protect, their natural resources as a patriotic duty. 
Only when prolonged trials have been made can it be 



SECOND PATENT i8i 

determined which nation can best and most cheaply 
provide the articles for which raw material abounds. 

The visit to Paris enabled Watt and Boulton to make 
the acquaintance of the most eminent men of science, 
with whom they exchanged ideas afterward in frequent 
and friendly correspondence. Watt described himself as 
being, upon one occasion, ' ' drunk from morning to night 
"with Burgimdy and imdeserved praise." The latter 
was always a disconcerting draught for our subject; 
anything but reference to his achievements for the 
modest self-effacing genius. 

While in Paris, Berthollet told Watt of his new 
method of bleaching by chlorine, and gave him per- 
mission to communicate it to his father-in-law, who 
adopted it in his business, together with several im- 
provements of Watt's invention, the results of a long 
series of experiments. Watt, writing to Mr. Mac- 
gregor, April 27, 1787, says: 

In relation to the inventor, he is a man of science, a member of 
the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and a physician, not very rich, a 
very modest and worthy man, and an excellent chemist. My sole 
motives in meddling with it were to procure such reward as I could 
to a man of merit who had made an extensively useful discovery in 
the arts, and secondly, I had an immediate view to your interest; 
as to myself, I had no lucrative views whatsoever, it being a thing 
out of my way, which both my business and my health prevented 
me from pursuing further than it might serve for amusement when 
unfit for more serious business. Lately, by a letter from the 
inventor, he informs me that he gives up all intentions of pursuing 
it with lucrative views, as he says he will not compromise his quiet 
and happiness by engaging in business; in which, perhaps, he is 



i82 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

right; but if the discovery has real merit, as I apprehend, he is 
certainly entitled to a generous reward, which I would wish 
for the honour of Britain, to procure for him; but I much fear, 
in the way you state, it, that nothing could be got worth his 
acceptance. 

France has been distinguished for men of science 
who have thus refrained from profiting by their in- 
ventions. Pasteur, in our day, perhaps the most 
famous of all, the liver, not only of the simple but of the 
ideal life, laboring for the good of himianity — service 
to man — and taking for himself the simple life, free from 
luxury, palace, estate, and all the inevitable cares ac- 
companying ostentatious living. BerthoUet preceded 
him. Like Agassiz, these gifted souls were " too busy 
to make money." 

In 1792, when Boulton had passed the allotted three 
score years and ten, and Watt was over three score, 
they made a momentous decision which brought upon 
them several years of deep anxiety. Fortunately the 
sons of the veterans who had recently been admitted 
to the business proved of great service in managing 
the affair, and relieved their parents of much labor 
and many journeys. Fortunate indeed were Watt 
and Boulton in their partnership, for they became 
friends first and partners afterward. They were not 
less fortunate in each having a talented son, who 
also became friends and partners like their fathers 
before them. The decision was that the infringers 
of their patents were to be proceeded against. 



SECOND PATENT 183 

They had to appeal to the law to protect their 
rights. 

Watt met the apparently inevitable fate of inventors. 
Rivals arose in various quarters to dispute his right 
to rank as the originator of many improvements. No 
reflection need be made upon most rival claimants to 
inventions. Some wonderful result is conceived to 
be within the range of possibility, which, being obtained, 
will revolutionise existing modes. A score of inventive 
minds are studying the problem throughout the civilised 
world. Every day or two some new idea flashes upon 
one of them and vanishes, or is discarded after trial. 
Gne day the announcement comes of triumphant suc- 
cess with the very same idea slightly modified, the 
modification or addition, slight though this may be, 
making all the difference between failure and success. 
The man has arrived with the key that opens the 
door of the treasure-house. He sets the egg on end 
perhaps by as obvious a plan as chipping the end. 
There arises a chorus of strenuous claimants, each of 
whom had thought of that very device long ago. No 
doubt they did. They are honest in their protests and 
quite persuaded in their own minds that they, and not 
the Watt of the occasion, are entitled to the honor 
of original discovery. This very morning we read in 
the press a letter from the son of Morse, vindicating 
his father's right to rank as the father of the telegraph, 
a son of Vail, one of his collaborators, having claimed 



1 84 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

that his father, and not Morse, was the real inventor. 
The most august of all bodies of men, since its decisions 
overrule both Congress and President, the Supreme 
Court of the United States, has shown rare wisdom 
from its inception, and in no department more clearly 
than in that regarding the rights of inventors. No 
court has had such experience with patent claims, for 
no nation has a tithe of the number to deal with. 
Throughout its history, the court has attached more 
and more importance to two points: First, is the 
invention valuable ? Second, who proved this in actual 
practice? These points largely govern its decisions. 

The law expenses of their suits seemed to Boulton 
and Watt exorbitant, even in that age of low prices 
compared to our own. One solicitor's bill was for no 
less than $30,000, which caused Watt years after- 
ward, when speaking of an enormous charge to say 
that "it would not have disgraced a London solicitor." 
When we find however, that this was for four years' 
services, the London solicitor appears in a different 
light. " In the whole affair," writes Watt to his friend 
Dr. Black, January 15, 1797, "nothing was so grateful 
" to me as the zeal of our friends and the activity of our 
"young men, which were unremitting." 

The first trial ended June 22, 1793, with a verdict 
for Watt and Boulton by the jury, subject to the 
opinion of the court as to the validity of the patent. 
On May 16, 1795, the case came on for judgment 



SECOND PATENT 185 

when unfortunately the court was found divided, 
two for the patent and two against. Another case was 
tried December 16, 1796, with a special jury, before 
Lord Chief Justice Eyre ; the verdict was again for the 
plaintiffs. Proceedings on a writ of error had the 
effect of affirming the result by the unanimous opinion 
of the four judges, before whom it was ably and fully 
argued on two occasions. 

The testimony of Professor Robison, Watt's intimate 
friend of youth in Glasgow, was understood to have 
been deeply impressive, and to have had a decisive 
effect upon judges and jury. 

All the claims of Watt were thus tritimphantly 
sustained. The decision has always been considered 
of commanding importance to the law of patents in 
Britain, and was of vast consequence to the firm of 
Watt and Boulton pecuniarily. Heavy damages and 
costs were due from the actual defendants, and the 
large mmiber of other infringers were also liable for 
damages. As was to have been expected, however, the 
firm remembered that to be merciful in the hour of 
victory and not to ptmish too hard a fallen foe, was a 
cardinal virtue. The settlements they made were 
considered most liberal and satisfactory to all. Watt 
used frequently long afterward to refer to his specifica- 
tions as his old and well-tried friends. So indeed 
they proved, and many references to their wonderful 
efficiency were made. 



1 86 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

With the beginning of the new century, 1800, the 
original partnership of the famous firm of Boulton 
and Watt expired, after a term of twenty-five years, as 
did the patents of 1769 and 1775. The term of partner- 
ship had been fixed with reference to the duration of 
the patents. Young men in their prime, Watt at 
forty and Boulton about fifty when they joined hands, 
after a quarter-century of unceasing and anxious 
labor, were disposed to resign the cares and troubles 
of business to their sons. The partnership there- 
fore was not renewed by them, but their respective 
shares in the firm were agreed upon as the basis of a 
new partnership between their sons, James Watt, Jr., 
Matthew Robinson Boulton and Gregory Watt, 
all distinguished for abilities of no mean order, 
and in a great degree already conversant with 
the business, which their wise fathers had seen 
fit for some years to entrust more and more to 
them. 

In nothing done by either of these two wise fathers 
is more wisdom shown than in their sagacious, far- 
seeing policy in regard to their sons. As they them- 
selves had been taught to concentrate their energies 
upon useful occupation, for which society would pay as 
for value received, they had doubtless often conferred, 
and concluded that was the happiest and best life for 
their sons, instead of allowing them to fritter away the 
precious years of youth in aimless frivolity, to be 



SECOND PATENT 187 

followed in later years by a disappointing and humiliat- 
ing old age. 

So the partnership of Bonlton and Watt was renewed 
in the tinion of the sons. Gregory Watt's prematirre 
death four years later was such a blow to his father 
that some think he never was quite himself again. 
Gregory had displayed brilliant talents in the higher 
pursuits of science and literature, in which he took 
delight, and great things had been predicted from 
him. With the other two sons the business connection 
continued without change for forty years, until, when 
old men, they also retired like their fathers. They 
proved to be great managers, for notwithstanding the 
cessation of the patents which opened engine-building 
free to all, the business of the firm increased and 
became much more profitable than it had ever been 
before; indeed toward the close of the original 
partnership, and upon the triumph gained in the patent 
suits, the enterprise became so profitable as fully to 
satisfy the moderate desire of Watt, and to provide 
a sure source of income for his sons. This met all 
his wishes and removed the fears of becoming dependent 
that had so long haunted him. 

The continued and increasing success of the Soho 
works was obviously owing to the new partners. They 
had some excellent assistants, but in the foremost place 
among all of them stands Murdoch, Watt's able, faith- 
ful and esteemed assistant for many years, who, both 



1 88 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

intellectually and in manly independence, was con- 
sidered to exhibit no small resemblance to his revered 
master and friend. Never formally a partner in Soho 
(for he declined partnership as we have seen), he was 
placed on ttie footing of a partner by the sons in 1810, 
without risk, and received $5,000 per annum. From 
1830 he lived in peaceful retirement and passed away 
in 1839. His remains were deposited in Handsworth 
Church near those of his friends and employers, Watt 
and Boiilton (the one spot on earth he could have most 
desired) . "A bust by Chantrey serves to perpetuate the 
" remembrance of his manly and intelligent features, and 
**of the mind of which these were a pleasing index," 
We may imagine the shades of Watt and Boulton, 
those friends so appropriately laid together, greeting 
their friend and employee: "Well done, thou good 
*' and faithful servant!" If ever there was one, Miir- 
doch was the man, and Captain Jones his fellow. 

We have referred to Watt's suggestion of the screw- 
propeller, and of the sketch of it sent to Dr. Small, 
September 30, 1770. The only record of any earlier 
suggestion of steam is that of Jonathan Hulls, in 1736, 
and which he set forth in a pamphlet entitled "A 
' * Description and Draught of a Newly Invented Machine 
" for carrying vessels or ships out of or into any Har- 
**bour. Port or River, against Wind or Tide or in a 
"Calm"; London, 1737. He described a large barge 
equipped with a Newcomen engine to be employed as a 



SECOND PATENT 189 

tug, fitted with fan (or paddle) wheels, towing a ship 
of war, but nothing further appears to have been 
done. Writing on this subject, Mr. Williamson says: 

During his last visit to Greenock in 1816, Mr. Watt, in company 
with his friend, Mr. Walkinshaw — ^whom the author some years 
afterward heard relate the circumstance — made a voyage in a steam- 
boat as far as Rothsay and back to Greenock — an excursion, which, 
in those days, occupied a greater portion of a whole day. Mr. 
Watt entered into conversation with the engineer of the boat, 
pointing out to him the method of "backing" the engine. With a 
footrule he demonstrated to him what was meant. Not succeeding, 
however, he at last, under the impulse of the ruling passion, threw 
off his overcoat, and, putting his hand to the engine himself, showed 
the practical application of his lecture. Previously to this, the 
"back-stroke" of the steamboat engine was either unknown, or 
not generally known. The practice was to stop the engine entirely 
a considerable time before the vessel reached the point of mooring, 
in order to allow for the gradual and natural diminution of her 
speed. 

The naval review at Spithead, upon the close of the 
Crimean war in 1856, was the greatest up to that time. 
Ten vessels out of two hundred and fifty still had not 
steam power, but almost all the others were propelled 
by the screw — the spiral oar of Watt's letter of 1770 
— a red-letter day for the inventor. 

Watt's early interest in locomotive steam-carriages, 
dating from Robison's having thrown out the idea to 
him, was never lost. On August 12, 1768, Dr. Small 
writes Watt, referring to the " peculiar improvements in 
" them" the latter had made previous to that date. 
Seven months later he apprises Watt that " a patent for 



190 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

*' moving wheel-carriages by steam has been taken out 
" by one Moore,'* adding " this comes of thy delays ; do 
*'come to England with all possible speed." Watt 
replied "If linen-draper Moore does not use my 
"engine to drive his chaises he can't drive them 
**by steam." Here Watt hit the nail on the head; 
as with the steamship, so with the locomotive, his 
steam-engine was the indispensable power. In 1786 
he states that he has a carriage model of some size in 
hand "and am resolved to try if God will work a 
"miracle in favor of these carriages." Watt's doubt 
was based on the fact that they would take twenty 
pounds of coal and two cubic feet of water per horse- 
power on the common roads. 

Another of Watt's recreations in his days of semi- 
retirement was the improvement of lamps. He wrote 
the famous inventor of the Argand burner fully upon 
the subject in August, 1787, and constructed some 
lamps which proved great successes. 

The following year he invented an instnmient for 
determining the specific gravities of liquids, which was 
generally adopted. 

One of Watt's inventions was a new method of 
readily measuring distances by telescope, which he 
used in making his various stu*veys for canals. Such 
instnmients are in general use to-day. Brough's 
treatise on "Mining" (loth ed., p. 228) gives a very 
complete accoimt of them, and states that " the original 



SECOND PATENT 191 

"instrument of this class is that invented by James 
♦'Watt in 1771." 

In his leisiire hours, Watt invented an ingenious 
machine for drawing in perspective, using the double 
parallel ruler, then very little known and not at all 
used as far as Watt knew. Watt reports having made 
from fifty to eighty of these machines, which went 
to various parts of the world. 

In 18 10 Watt informs BerthoUet that for several 
years he had felt tmable, owing to the state of his 
health, to make chemical experiments. But idle he 
cotdd not be ; he must be at work upon something. As 
he often said, "without a hobby-horse, what is life?" 
So the saying is reported, but we may conclude that 
the "horse" is here an interpolation, for the difference 
between "a horse" and "a hobby" is radical — a man 
can get off a horse. 

Watt's next "hobby" fortunately became an en- 
grossing occupation and kept him alert. This was a 
machine for copying sculpture. A machine he had 
seen in Paris for tracing and multiplying the dies 
of medals, suggested the other. After much labor 
and many experiments he did get some measure 
of success, and made a large head of Locke in 
yellow wood, and a small head of his friend Adam 
Smith. 

Long did Watt toil at the new hobby in the garret 
where it had been created, but the garret proved too 



192 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

hot in summer and too cold in winter. March 14, 18 10, 
he writes Berthollet and Leveque : 

I still do a little in mechanics : a part of which, if I live to com- 
plete it, I shall have the honor of communicating to my friends 
in France. 

He went steadily forward and succeeded in making 
some fine copies in 1814. For one of Sappho he gives 
dates and the hotirs required for various parts, making 
a total of thirty-nine. Some censorious Sabbatarians 
discovered that the day he was employed one hour 
"doing her breast with ^th drill" was Sabbath, which 
in one who belonged to a strict Scottish Covenanter 
family, betokened a sad fall from grace. When we con- 
sider that his health was then precarious, that he was 
debarred from chemical experiments, and depended 
solely upon mechanical subjects ; that in all probability it 
was a stormy day (Sunday, February 3, 181 1), knowing 
also that " Satan finds mischief still for idle hands to do,'* 
we hope our readers will pardon him for yielding to 
the irresistible temptation, even if on the holy Sabbath 
day for once he could not " get off ' ' his captivating hobby. 

The historical last workshop of the great worker with 
all its contents remains open to the public to-day just 
as it was when he passed away. Pilgrims from many 
lands visit it, as Shakespeare's birthplace, Bums' cot- 
tage, and Scott's Abbottsford attract their many thou- 
sands yearly. We recommend our readers to add to 
these this garret of Watt in their pilgiimages. 



The Record of the Steam Engine 



CHAPTER VIII 
The Record of the Steam Engine 

THE Soho works, up to January, 1824, had com- 
pleted 1 1 64 steam engines, of a nominal horse- 
power of 25,945; from January, 1824, to 1854, 441 
engines, nominal horse-power, 25,278, making the total 
number 1605, of nominal horse-power, 51,223, and real 
horse -power, 167,319. Mulhall gives the total steam- 
power of the world as 50,150,000 horse-power in 1888. 
In 1880 it was only 34,150,000. Thus in eight years it 
increased, say, fifty per cent. Assuming the same rate 
of increase from 1888 to 1905, a similar period, it is 
to-day 75,000,000 nominal, which Engel says may be 
taken as one-half the effective power (vide Mulhall, 
"Steam,'* p. 546), the real horse-power in 1905 being 
150,000,000. One horse-power raises ten tons a height 
of twelve inches per minute. Working eight hours, this 
is about 5,000 tons daily, or twelve times a man's 
work, and as the engine never tires, and can be run con- 
stantly, it follows that each horse-power it can exert 
equals thirty-six men's work; but, allowing for stop- 
pages, let us say thirty men. The engines of a large 
ocean greyhound of 35,000 horse-power, running con- 
stantly from port to port, equal to three relays of 

195 



196 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

twelve men per horse-power, is daily exerting the 
power of 1,260,000 men, or 105,000 horses. Assiiming 
that all the steam engines in the world upon the average 
work double the hours of men, then the 150,000,000 
horse-power in the world, each equal to two relays of 
twelve men per horse-power, exerts the power of 
3,600,000,000 of men. There are only one-tenth as 
many male adults in the world, estimating one in 
five of the population. 

If we assume that all steam engines work an average 
of only eight hours in the twenty-four, as men and 
horses do (those on duty longer hours are not imder con- 
tinuous exertion), it still follows that the 150,000,000 
of effective steam-power, each doing the work of twelve 
men, equals the work of 1,800,000,000 of men, or of 
150,000,000 of horses. 

Engel estimated that in 1880 the value of world 
industries dependent upon steam was thirty-two 
thousand millions of dollars, and that in 1888 it had 
reached forty-three thousand millions of dollars. It is 
to-day doubtless more than sixty thousand millions of 
dollars, a great increase no doubt over 1880, but 
the one figure is as astounding as the other, for both 
mean nothing that can be grasped. 

The chief steam-using countries are America, 
14,400,000 horse-power in 1888; Britain, 9,200,000 
horse-power nominal. If we add the British colonies 
and dependencies, 7,120,000 horse-power, the English- 



RECORD OF THE STEAM ENGINE 197 

speaking race had three-fifths of all the steam-power 
of the world. 

In 1840 Britain had only 620,000 horse-power nomi- 
nal; the United States 760,000; the whole world had 
only 1,650,000 horse-power. To-day it has 75,000,000 
nominal. So rapidly has steam extended its sway over 
most of the earth in less than the span of a man's life. 
There has never been any development in the world's 
history comparable to this, nor can we imagine that 
such a rapid transformation can ever come in the 
futiire. What the future is finally to bring forth even 
imagination is tmable to conceive. No bounds can be 
set to its forth-coming possible, even probable, wonders, 
but as such a revolution as steam has brought must 
come from a superior force capable of displacing steam, 
this would necessarily be a much longer task than 
steam had in occupying an entirely new field without 
a rival. 

The contrast between Newcomen and Watt is inter- 
esting. The Newcomen engine constimed twenty-eight 
pounds of coal per horse-power and made not exceed- 
ing three to four strokes per minute, the piston moving 
about fifty feet per minute. To-day, steam marine 
engines on one and one-third pounds of coal per horse- 
power — the monster ships using less — ^make from 
seventy to ninety revolutions per minute. " Destroyers " 
reach 400 per minute. Small steam engines, it is stated, 
have attained 600 revolutions^per minute. The piston 



1 98 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

to-day is supposed to travel moderately when at i,ooo 
feet per rainute, in a cylinder three feet long. This 
gives 1 66 revolutions per minute. With coal under the 
boilers costing one dollar per net ton, from say five 
pounds of coal for one cent there is one horse-power 
for three hours, or a day and a night of continuous 
running for eight cents. 

Countless millions of men and of horses would be use- 
less for the work of the steam-engine, for the seem- 
ingly miraculous quality steam possesses, that permits 
concentration, is as requisite as its expansive powers. 
One hundred thousand horse-power, or several hundred 
thousand horse-power, is placed under one roof and 
directed to the task required. Sixty-four thousand 
horse-power is concentrated in the hold of the great 
steamships now building. All this stupendous force is 
evolved, concentrated and regulated by science from 
the most unpromising of substances, cold water. Noth- 
ing man has discovered or imagined is to be named 
with the steam engine. It has no fellow. Franklin 
capturing the lightning, Morse annihilating space with 
the telegraph, Bell transmitting speech through the air 
by the telephone, are not less mysterious — ^being more 
ethereal, perhaps in one sense they are even more so — 
still, the labor of the world performed by heating cold 
water places Watt and his steam engine in a class apart 
by itself. Many are the inventions for applying power; 
his creates the power it applies. 



RECORD OF THE STEAM ENGINE 199 

Whether the steam engine has reached its climax, and 
gas, oil, or other agents are to be used extensively for 
power, in the near future, is a question now debated in 
scientific circles. Much progress has been made in using 
these substitutes, and more is probable, as one obstacle 
after another is overcome. Gas especially is coming 
forward, and oil is freely used. For reasons before 
stated, it seems to the writer that, where coal is 
plentiful, the day is distant when steam will not con- 
tinue to be the principal source of power. It will be 
a world surpriser that beats one horse-power developed 
by one pound of coal. The power to do much more 
than this, however, lies theoretically in gas, but there 
come these wise words of Arago to mind: ''Persons 
*' whose whole lives have been devoted to speculative 
*' labours are not aware how great the distance is be- 
*' tween a scheme, apparently the best concerted, and 
**its realisation." So true! Watt's ideas in the brain, 
and the steam engine that he had to evolve during 
nine long years, are somewhat akin to the great gulf 
between resolve and performance, the "good resolu- 
"tion" that soothes and the "act" that exalts. 

The steam engine is Scotland's chief, tho not her 
only contribution to the material progress of the world. 
Watt was its inventor, we might almost write Creator, 
so multiform were the successive steps. Symington by 
the steamship stretched one arm of it over the water; 
Stephenson by the locomotive stretched the other over 



200 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

the land. Thus was the world brought under its sway 
and conditions of human life transformed. Watt and 
Symington were born in Scotland within a few miles of 
each other. Stephenson's forbears moved from Scot- 
land south of the line previous to his birth, as Fulton's 
parents removed from Scotland to America, so that 
both Stephenson and Fulton could boast with Gladstone 
that the blood in their veins was Scotch. 

The history of the world has no parallel to the change 
effected by the inventions of these three men. Strange 
that little Scotland, with^only 1,500,000 people, in 179 1, 
about one-half the population of New York City, should 
have been the mother of such a triad, and that her 
second "mighty three" (Wallace, Bruce and Burns 
always first) , should have been of the same generation, 
working upon the earth near each other at the same 
time. The Watt engine appeared in 1782; the steam- 
ship in 1 801; the locomotive thirteen years later, in 
18 14. Thus thirty- two years after its appearance 
Watt's steam-engine had conquered both sea and land. 

The sociologist may theorise, but plain people will 
remember that men do not gather grapes from thorns, 
nor figs from thistles. There must be something in 
the soil which produces such men; something in the 
poverty that compels exertion; something in the 
''land of the mountain and the flood" that stirs the 
imagination; something in the history of centuries of 
struggle for national and spiritual independence ; much 



RECORD OF THE STEAM ENGINE 201 

in the system of compulsory and universal free educa- 
tion; something of all these elements mingling in the 
blood that tells, and enables Scotland to contribute 
so largely to the progress of the world. 

Strange reticence is shown by all Watt's historians 
regarding his religious and political views. William- 
son, the earHest author of his memoirs, is full of inter- 
esting facts obtained from people in Greenock who 
had known Watt well. The hesitation shown by him 
as to Watt's orthodoxy in his otherwise highly eulogistic 
tribute, attracts attention. He says : 

We could desire to know more of the state of those affections which 
are more purely spiritual by their nature and origin — his disposition 
to those supreme truths of Revelation, which alone really elevate 
and purify the soul. In the absence of much information of a 
very positive kind in regard to such points of character and life, we 
instinctively revert in a case like this to the principles and maxims 
of an infantile and early training. Remembering the piety 
portrayed in the ancestors of this great man, one cannot but cling 
to the hope that his many virtues reposed on a substratum of more 
than merely moral excellence. Let us cherish the hope that the 
calm which rested on the spirit of the pilgrim .... was 
one that caught its radiance from a far higher sphere than that 
of the purest human philosophy. 

Watt's breaking of the Sabbath before recorded 
must have seemed to that stern Calvinist a heinous 
sin, justifying grave doubts of Watt's spiritual condi- 
tion, his "moral excellence" to the contrary notwith- 
standing. Williamson's estimate of moral excellence 
had recently been described by Burns : 



202 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

But then, nae thanks to him for a' that, 
Nae godly symptom ye can ca' that, 
It's naething but a milder feature 
Of our poor sinfu' corrupt nature. 
Ye' 11 get the best o' moral works, 
Many black gentoos and pagan v/orks. 
Or hunters wild on Ponotaxi 
Wha never heard of orthodoxy. 

Williamson's doubts had much stronger foundation in 
Watt's non-attendance at church, for, as we shall see 
from his letter to De Luc, July, 1788, he had never 
attended the "meeting-house" (dissenting church) in 
Birmingham altho he claimed to be still a member 
of the Presbyterian body in declining the sheriffalty. 

It seems probable that Watt, in his theological 
views, like Priestley and others of the Lunar Society, 
was in advance of his age, and more or less in accord 
with Burns, who was then astonishing his country- 
men. Perhaps he had forstalled Dean Stanley's advice 
in his rectorial address to the students of St. Andrew's 
University: "go to Burns for your theology," yet he 
remained a deeply religious man to the end, as we see 
from his letter (page 216), at the age of seventy-six. 

We know that politically Watt was in advance of 
his times for the prime minister pronounced him "a 
"sad radical." He was with Burns politically at all 
events. Watt's eldest son, then in Paris, was carried 
away by the French Revolution, and Muirhead sug- 
gests that the prime minister must have confounded 



RECORD OF THE STEAM ENGINE 203 

father and son, but it seems unreasonable to suppose 
that he could have been so misled as to mistake the 
doings of the famous Watt in Birmingham for those 
of his impulsive son in France. 

The French Revolution exerted a powerful influence 
in Britain, especially in the north of England and 
south of Scotland, which have much in common. The 
Lunar Society of Birmingham was intensely interested. 
At one of the meetings in the stimmer of 1788, held at 
her father's house, Mrs. Schimmelpenniack records that 
Mr. Boulton presented to the company his son, just 
returned from a long sojourn in Paris, who gave a 
vivid account of proceedings there. Watt and Dr. 
Priestly being present. A few months later the revolu- 
tion broke out. Young Harry Priestley, a son of the 
Doctor's, one evening burst into the drawing-room, 
waving his hat and crying, " Hurrah ! Liberty, Reason, 
" Brotherly Love forever ! Down with kingcraft and 
*' priestcraft ! The majesty of the people forever ! France 
*' is free ! " Dr. Priestley was deeply stirred and became 
the most prominent of all in the cause of the rights of 
man. He hailed the acts of the National Assembly 
abolishing monarchy, nobility and church. He was 
often engaged in discussions with the local clergy on 
theological dogmas. He wrote a pamphlet upon the 
French Revolution, and Burke attacked him in the 
House of Commons. All this naturally concentrated 
local opposition upon him as leader. The enthusiasts 



204 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

mistakenly determined to have a public dinner to 
celebrate the anniversary of the Revolution, and no 
less than eighty gentlemen attended, altho many 
advised against it. Priestley himself was not present. 
A mob collected outside and demolished the windows. 
The cry was raised, "To the new meeting-house !" the 
chapel in which Priestley ministered. The chapel 
was set on fire. Thence the riot proceeded to Priestley's 
house. The doctor and his family, being warned, had 
left shortly before. The house was at the mercy of 
the mob, which broke in, destroyed furniture, chemical 
laboratory and library, and finally set fire to the house. 
Some of the very best citizens suffered in like manner. 
Mr. Ryland, one of the most munificent benefactors 
of the town, Mr. Taylor, the banker, and Hutton, the 
estimable book-seller, were among the mmiber. The 
home of Dr. Withering, member of the Lunar Society, 
was entered, but the timely arrival of troops saved it 
from destruction. The members of the Lunar Society, 
or the "lunatics," as they were popularly called, were 
especially marked for attack. The mob cried, "No 
*' philosophers! " "Church and King forever !" All this 
put Boulton and Watt upon their guard, for they were 
prominent members of the society. They called their 
workmen together, explained the criminalty of the 
rioters, and placed arms in their hands on their promise 
to defend them if attacked. Meanwhile everything 
portable was packed up ready to be removed. 



RECORD OF THE STEAM ENGINE 205 
Watt wrote to Mr. DeLuc, July 19, 1791 : 

Though our principles, which are well known, as friends to the 
established government and enemies of republican principles, 
should have been our protection from a mob whose watchword was 
Church and King, yet our safety was principally owing to most 
of the Dissenters living south of the town ; for after the first moment 
they did not seem over-nice in their discrimination of religion and 
principles. I, among others, was pointed out as a Presbyterian 
though I never was in a meeting-house (Dissenting Church) in 
Birmingham, and Mr. Boulton is well-known as a Churchman. We 
had everjrthing most portable packed up, fearing the worst. How- 
ever, all is well with us. 

From all this we gather the impression that Radi- 
cal principles had permeated the leading minds of 
Birmingham to a considerable extent, probably around 
the Lunar Society district in greater measure than in 
other quarters, altho clubs of ardent supporters 
were formed in London and the principal provincial 
cities. 

In the political field, we have only one appearance 
of Watt reported. Early in 1784, we find him taking 
the lead in getting up a loyal address to the king on the 
appointment as prime minister of Pitt, who proposed 
to tax coal, iron, copper and other raw materials of 
manufacture to the amount of $5,000,000 per year, 
a considerable sum in those days when manufactur- 
ing was in its infancy. Boulton also joined in oppo- 
sition. They wisely held that for a manufacturing 
nation "to tax raw materials was suicidal: let taxes 
*' be laid upon luxuries, upon vices, and, if you like, upon 



2o6 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

" property ; tax riches when got, but i\ot the means of 
" getting them. Of all things don't cu* open the hen 
' ' that lays the golden eggs . " 

Watt's services were enlisted and he drew up a paper 
for circulation upon the subject. The policy failed, 
and soon after Pitt was converted to sounder doctrines 
by Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." Free trade 
has ruled Britain ever since, and, being the country 
that could manufacture cheapest, and indeed, the only 
manufacturing country for many years, this policy 
has made her the richest, per capita, of all nations. 
The day may be not far distant when America, soon to 
be the cheapest manufacturing country for many, as it 
already is for a few, staple articles, will be crying for 
free trade, and urging free entrance to the markets of 
the world. To tax the luxuries and vices, to tax wealth 
got and not in the making, as proposed by Watt and 
Boulton, is the policy to follow. Watt shows himself to 
have been a profound economist. 

Watt had cause for deep anxiety for his eldest son, 
James, who had taken an active part in the agitation. 
He and his friend, Mr. Cooper of Manchester, were 
appointed deputies by the "Constitutional Society," 
to proceed to Paris and present an address of congratu- 
ation to the Jacobin Club. Young Watt was carried 
away, and became intimate with the leaders. Southey 
says he actually prevented a duel between Danton and 
Robespierre by appearing on the ground and remon- 



RECORD OF THE STEAM ENGINE 207 

strating with them, pointing out that if either fell the 
cause must suffer. 

Upon young Watt's return, king's messengers 
arrived in Birmingham and seized persons concerned 
in seditious correspondence. Watt suggests that Boul- 
ton shotdd see his son and arrange for his leaving for 
America, or some foreign land, for a time. This proved 
to be unnecessary; his son was not arrested, and in a 
short time all was forgotten. He entered the works 
with Boulton's son as partner, and became an admirable 
manager. To-day we regard his mild republicanism, 
his alliance with Jacobin leaders, and especially his 
bold intervention in the quarrel between two of the 
principal actors in the tragedy of the French Revolu- 
tion, as "a ribbon in the cap of youth." That his 
douce father did the same and was proud of his eldest 
born seems probable. Our readers will also judge 
for themselves whether the proud father had not him- 
self a strong liking for democratic principles, "the 
"rights of the people," "the royalty of man," which 
Burns was then blazing forth, and held such senti- 
ments as quite justified the prime minister's accusa- 
tion that he was " a sad radical." 

In Britain, since Watt's day, all traces of opposition 
to monarchy aroused by the French Revolution have 
disappeared, as completely as the monarchy of King 
George. The " limited monarchy " of to-day, developed 
during the admirable reign of Queen Victoria, has 



2o8 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

taken its place. The French abolished monarchy by 
a frontal attack upon the citadel, involving serious 
loss. Not such the policy of the colder Briton. He 
won his great victory, losing nothing, by flanking the 
position. That the king "could do no wrong," is a 
doctrine almost coeval with modern history, flowing 
from the "divine right" of kings, and, as such, was 
quietly accepted. It needed only to be properly 
harnessed to become a very serviceable agent for 
registering the people's will. 

It was obvious that the acceptance of the doctrine 
that the king could do no wrong involved the duty of 
proving the truth of the axiom, and it was equally 
obvious that the only possible way of doing this was 
that the king should not be allowed to do anything. 
Hence he was made the mouthpiece of his ministers, 
and it is not the king, but they, who, being fallible men, 
may occasionally err. The monarch, in losing power to 
do anything has gained power to influence everything. 
The ministers hold office through the approval of the 
House of Commons. Members of that house are 
elected by the people. Thus stands government in 
Britain "broad-based upon the people's will." 

All that the revolutionists of Watt's day desired has, 
in substance, been obtained, and Britain has become 
in truth a "crowned republic," with "government of 
*' the people, for the people, and by the people." This 
steady and beneficent development was peaceably 



RECORD OF THE STEAM ENGINE 209 

attained. The difference between the French and 
British methods is that between revolution and 
evolution. 

In America's political domain, a similar evolution 
has been even more silently at work than in Britain 
during the past centtiry, and is not yet exhausted — 
the transformation of a loose confederacy of sovereign 
states, with different laws, into one solid government, 
which assumes control and insures uniformity over one 
department after another. The centripetal forces 
grow stronger with the years; power leaves the indi- 
vidual states and drifts to Washington, as the necessity 
for each successive change becomes apparent. In the 
regulation of interstate commerce, of trusts, and in 
other fields, final authority over the whole land gravi- 
tates more and more to Washington. It is a beneficent 
movement, likely to result in uniform national laws 
upon many subjects in which present diversity creates 
confusion. Marriage and divorce laws, bankruptcy 
laws, corporation charter privileges, and many other 
important questions may be expected to become uni- 
form under this evolutionary process. The Supreme 
Court decision that the Union was an indissoluble 
union of indissoluble states, carries with it finally 
uniform regulation of many interstate problems, in 
every respect salutary, and indispensable for the 
perfect union of the American people. 



Watt in Old Age 



CHAPTER IX 
Watt in Old Age 

WATT graceftilly glided into old age. This is 
the great test of success in life. To every 
stage a laurel, but to happy old age the crown. 
It was different with his friend Boulton, who con- 
tinued to frequent the works and busy himself 
in affairs much as before, altho approaching his 
eightieth year. Watt cotdd still occupy himself in his 
garret, where his "mind to him a Kingdom was,*' 
upon the scientific pursuits which charmed him. He 
revisited Paris in 1802 and renewed acquaintances 
with his old friends, with whom he spent five weeks. 
He frequently treated himself to tours throughout 
England, Scotland and Wales. In the latter cotmtry, 
he purchased a property which attracted him by its 
beauties, and which he greatly improved. It became 
at a later date, tmder his son, qmte an extensive 
estate, much diversified, and not lacking altogether 
the stern grandeur of his native Scotland. He planted 
trees and took intense delight in his garden, being 
very fond of flowers. The farmhouse gave him a 
comfortable home upon his visits. The fine woods 

which now richly clothe the valley and agreeably 

213 



214 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

diversify the river and mountain scenery were chiefly 
planted under his superintendence, many by his own 
hand. In short, the blood in his veins, the lessons 
of his childhood that made him a "child of the mist," 
happy in roaming among the hills, reasserted their 
power in old age as the Celtic element powerfully 
does. He turned more and more to nature. 

"That never yet betrayed the heart that loved her — " 

We see him strolling through his woods, and imagine 
him crooning to himself from that marvellous memory 
that forgot no gem: 

For I ha/e learned 
To look on nature, not as in the hour 
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes 
The still, sad music of humanity, 
Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power 
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt 
A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean and the living air, 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: 
A motion and a spirit, that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still 
A lover of the meadows and the woods, 
And mountains; and of all that we behold 
From this green earth. 

Twice Watt was requested to undertake the honor 
of the shrievalty; in 1803 that of Staffordshire, and in 



WATT IN OLD AGE 215 

1816 that of Radnorshire, both of which were positively 
decHned. 

He finally found it necessary to declare that he was 
not a member of the Chnrch of England, but of the 
Presbyterian church of Scotland, a reason which in 
that day was conclusive. 

In 18 16, he was in his eighty-first year, and no diffi- 
culty seems then to have been found for excusing him, 
for it seems the assumption of the duties was compulsory. 
It was "the voice of age resistless in its feebleness." 

The day had come when Watt awakened to one of the 
saddest of all truths, that his friends were one by one 
rapidly passing away, the circle ever narrowing, the 
few whose places never could be filled becoming fewer, 
he in the centre left more and more alone. Nothing 
grieved Watt so much as this. In 1794 his partner, 
Roebuck, fell; in 1799, his inseparable friend, and sup- 
porter in his hour of need. Dr. Black, and also Wither- 
ing of the Lunar Society; and in 1802 Darwin "of the 
"silver song," one of his earliest English friends. In 
1804, his brilliant son Gregory died, a terrible shock. 
In 1805, his first Glasgow College intimate, Robison; 
Dr. Beddoes in 1808; Boulton, his partner, in 1809; Dr. 
Wilson in 181 1 ; De Luc in 181 7. Many other friends 
of less distinction fell in these years who were not less 
dear to him. He says, "by one friend's withdrawing 
" after another," he felt himself " in danger of standing 
" alone among strangers, the son of later times." 



2i6 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

He writes to Boulton on November 23, 1802: 

We cannot help feeling, with deep regret, the circle of our old 
friends gradually diminishing, while our ability to increase it by 
new ones is equally diminished; but perhaps it is a wise dispensa- 
tion of Providence so to diminish our enjoyments in this world, 
that when our turn comes we may leave it without regret. 

He writes to another correspondent, July 12, 1810: 

I, in partictilar, have reason to thank God that he has preserved 
me so well as I am, to so late a period, while the greater part of my 
contemporaries, healthier and younger men, have passed "the 
" bourne from which no traveller returns." It is, however, a pain- 
ful contemplation to see so many who were dear to us pass away 
before us; and our consolation should be, that as Providence has 
been pleased to prolong our lite, we should render ourselves as use- 
ful to society as we can while we live. 

And again, when seventy-six years of age, January, 
181 2, he writes: 

On these subjects I can offer no other consolations than what are 
derived from religion : they have only gone before us a little while, 
in that path we all must tread, and we should be thankful they were 
spared so long to their friends and the world. 

Sir Walter Scott declares : 

That is the worst part of life when its earlier path is trod. If my 
limbs get stiff, my walks are made shorter, and my rides slower; if 
my eyes fail me, I can use glasses and a large print : if I get a little 
deaf, I comfort myself that except in a few instances I shall be no 
great loser by missing one full half of what is spoken: but I feel 
the loneliness of age when my companions and friends are taken 
from me. 

All his life until retiring from business, Watt's care 
was to obtain sufficient for the support of himself 
and family upon the most modest scale. He had no 



WATT IN OLD AGE 217 

surplus to devote to ends beyond self, but as soon as he 
retired with a small competence it was different, and 
we accordingly find him promptly beginning to apply 
some portion of his still small revenue to philanthrop- 
ical ends. Naturally, his thoughts reverted first to his 
native town and the university to which he owed so 
much. 

In 1808 he founded the Watt Prize in Glasgow 
University, saying: 

Entertaining a due sense of the many favours conferred upon me 
by the University of Glasgow, I wish to leave them some memorial 
of my gratitude, and, at the same time, to excite a spirit of inquiry 
and exertion among the students of Natural Philosophy and Chem- 
istry attending the College ; which appears to me the more useful, 
as the very existence of Britain, as a nation, seems to me, in great 
measure, to depend upon her exertions in science and in the arts. 

The University conferred the degree of LL.D. upon 
him in 1774, and its great engineering laboratory bears 
his name. 

In 1 81 6, he made a donation to the town of Greenock 
for scientific books, stating it to be his intention 

to form the beginning of a scientific library for the instruction of 
the youth of Greenock, in the hope of prompting others to add to 
it, and of rendering his townsmen as eminent for their knowledge as 
they are for the spirit of enterprise. 

This has grown to be a library containing 15,000 
volumes, and is a valuable adjunct of the Watt 
Institution, founded by his son in memory of 
his father, which is to-day the educational centre of 
Greenock. Its entrance is adorned by a remarkably 



2i8 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

fine statue of Watt, funds for which were raised by 
public subscription. 

Many societies honored the great inventor. He 
was a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the 
Royal Society of London, Member of the Batavian 
Society, correspondent of the French Academy of 
Sciences, and was one of the eight Foreign Associates 
of the French Academy of Sciences. 

Watt's almost morbid dislike for publicity leaves 
many well-known acts of kindness and charity hidden 
from all save the recipients. Muirhead assures us that 
such gifts as we can well believe were not wanting. 
Watt's character as a kindly neighbor always stood 
high. He was one of those "who will not receive a 
reward for that for which God accounts Himself a 
debtor — persons that dare trust God with their charity, 
and without a witness." 

In the autumn of i8 19 an illness of no great apparent 
severity caused some little anxiety to Watt's family, and 
was soon recognised by himself as the messenger sent to 
apprise him of his end. This summons he met with the 
calm and tranquil mind, that, looking backward, could 
have found little of serious nature to repent, and looking 
forward, found nothing to fear. '* He often expressed his 
" gratitude to the Giver of All Good who had so signally 
" prospered the work of his hands and blessed him with 
* ' length of days and riches and honour. ' ' On August 1 9, 
1 81 9, aged 83, in his own home at Heathfield, he tran- 



WATT IN OLD AGE 219 

qtiilly breathed his last, deeply mourned by all who 
were privileged to know him. In the parish church- 
yard, alongside of Boulton, he was most appropriately 
laid to rest. Thus the two strong men, life-long friends 
and partners, who had never had a serious difference, 
"lovely and pleasant in their lives, in their death were 
"not divided." 

It may be doubted whether there be on record 
so charming a business connection as that of Boulton 
and Watt; in their own increasingly close union for 
twenty-five years, and, at its expiration, in the renewal 
of that union in their sons under the same title ; in their 
sons* close union as friends without friction as in the 
first generation ; in the wonderful progress of the world 
resulting from their works ; in their lying down side by 
side in death upon the bosom of Mother Earth in the 
quiet churchyard, as they had stood side by side in the 
battle of life ; and in the faithful servant Murdoch join- 
ing them at the last, as he had joined them in his prime. 
In the sweet and precious influences which emanate from 
all this, may we not gratefully make acknowledgment 
that in contemplation thereof we are lifted into a higher 
atmosphere, refreshed, encouraged, and bettered by 
the true story of men like ourselves, whom if we can 
never hope to equal, we may at least try in part to 
imitate. 

A meeting was called in London to take steps for 
a montmient to Watt to be placed in Westminster 



220 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

Abbey. The prime minister presided and announced 
a subscription of five hundred pounds sterling from 
His Majesty. It may truly be said that 

A meeting more distinguished by rank, station and talent', was 
never before assembled to do honour to genius, and to modest 
and retiring worth; and a more spontaneous, noble, and discrimi- 
nating testimony was never borne to the virtues, talents, and 
public services of any individual, in any age or country. 

The result was the colossal statue by Chantrey which 
bears the following inscription, pronotmced to be 
beyond comparison "the finest lapidary^ inscription 
" in the English language." It is from the pen of Lord 
Brougham : 

NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME 
WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS FLOURISH 

BUT TO SHEW 

THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNT TO HONOUR THOSE 

WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE v, 

THE KING 

HIS MINISTERS, AND MANY OP THE NOBLES 

AND COMMONERS OF THE REALM 

RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO 

JAMES WATT 

WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS 

EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH 

TO THE IMPROVEMENT OP 

THE STEAM-ENGINE 

ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OP HIS COUNTRY 

INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN 

AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE 

AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OP SCIENCE 

AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD 

BORN AT GREENOCK MDCCXXXVI 

DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN STAFFORDSHIRE MDCCCXIX 



Watt, the Inventor and Discoverer 



CHAPTER X 
Watt, the Inventor and Discoverer 

IN the foregoing pages an effort has been made to 
follow and describe Watt's work in detail as it was 
performed, but we believe our readers will thank us for 
presenting the opinions of a few of the highest scientific 
and legal authorities upon what Watt really did. Lord 
Brougham has this to say of Watt : 

One of the most astonishing circumstances in this truly great 
man was the versatility of his talents. His accomplishments wcx'e 
so various, the powers of his mind were so vast, and yet of such 
universal application, that it was hard to say whether we should 
most admire the extraordinary grasp of his understanding, or the 
accuracy of nice research with which he could bring it to bear upon 
the most minute objects of investigation. I forget of whom it was 
said, that his mind resembled the trunk of an elephant, which can 
pick up straws and tear up trees by the roots. Mr. Watt in some 
sort resembled the greatest and most celebrated of his own inven- 
tions; of which we are at a loss whether most to wonder at the 
power of grappling with the mightiest objects, or of handling the 
most minute; so that while nothing seems too large for its grasp, 
nothing seems too small for the delicacy of its touch; which can 
cleave rocks and pour forth rivers from the bowels of the earth, 
and with perfect exactness, though not with greater ease, fashion 
the head of a pin, or strike the impress of some curious die. Now 
those who knew Mr. Watt, had to contemplate a man whose genius 
could create such an engine, and indulge in the most abstruse 
speculations of philosophy, and could at once pass from the most 

223 



224 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

sublime researches of geology and physical astronomy, the for- 
mation of our globe, and the structure of the universe, to the manu- 
facture of a needle or a nail; who could discuss in the same con- 
versation, and with equal accuracy, if not with the same consum- 
mate skill, the most forbidding details of art, and the elegances of 
classical literature; the most abstruse branches of science, and the 
niceties of verbal criticism. 

There was one quality in Mr. Watt which most honorably dis- 
tinguished him from too many inventors, and was worthy of all 
imitation; he was not only entirely free from jealousy, but he 
exercised a careful and scrupulous self-denial, and was anxious 
not to appear, even by accident, as appropriating to himself that 
which he thought belonged in part to others. I have heard him 
refuse the honor universally ascribed to him, of being inventor of 
the steam-engine, and call himself simply its improver; though, in 
my mind, to doubt his right to that honor would be as inaccurate 
as to question Sir Isaac Newton's claim to his greatest discoveries, 
because Descartes in mathematics, and Galileo in astronomy and 
mechanics, had preceded him; or to deny the merits of his illus- 
trious successor, because galvanism was not his discovery, though 
before his time it had remained as useless to science as the instru- 
ment called a steam-engine was to the arts before Mr. Watt. The 
only jealousy I have known him betray was with respect to others, 
in the nice adjustment he was fond of giving to the claims of inven- 
tors. Justly prizing scientific discovery above all other possessions, 
he deemed the title to it so sacred, that you might hear him arguing 
by the hour to settle disputed rights ; and if you ever perceived his 
temper ruffled, it was when one man's invention was claimed by, 
or given to, another; or when a clumsy adulation pressed upon 
himself that which he knew to be not his own. 

Sir Humphrey Davy says : 

I consider it as a duty incumbent on me to endeavor to set forth 
his peculiar and exalted merits, which live in the recollection of 
his contemporaries and will transmit his name with immortal 
glory to posterity. Those who consider James Watt only as a 



INVENTOR AND DISCOVERER 225 

great practical mechanic form a very erroneous idea of his charac- 
ter; he was equally distinguished as a natural philosopher and a 
chemist, and his inventions demonstrate his profound knowledge 
of those sciences, and that peculiar characteristic of genius, the 
union of them for practical application. The steam engine before 
his time was a rude machine, the result of simple experiments on 
the compression of the atmosphere, and the condensation of steam. 
Mr. Watt's improvements were not produced by accidental cir- 
cumstances or by a single ingenious thought; they were founded 
on delicate and refined experiments, connected with the discoveries 
of Dr. Black. He had to investigate the cause of the cold produced 
by evaporation, of the heat occasioned by the condensation of 
steam — to determine the source of the air appearing when water 
was acted upon by an exhausting power; the ratio of the volume 
of steam to its generating water, and the law by which the elasticity 
of steam increased with the temperature; labor, time, numerous 
and difficult experiments, were required for the ultimate result; 
and when his principle was obtained, the application of it to produce 
the movement of machinery demanded a new species of intellectual 
and .experimental labor. 

The Archimedes of the ancient world by his mechanical inventions 
arrested the course of the Romans, and stayed for a time the down- 
fall of his country. How much more has our modem Archimedes 
done? He has permanently elevated the strength and wealth of 
his great empire: and, during the last long war, his inventions; 
and their application were amongst the great means which enabled 
Britain to display power and resources so infinitely above what 
might have been expected from the numerical strength of her 
population, Archimedes valued principally abstract science ; 
James Watt, on the contrary, brought every principle to some 
practical use; and, as it were, made science descend from heaven 
to earth. The great inventions of the Syracusan died with him — 
those of our philosopher live, and their utility and importance are 
daily more felt; they are among the grand results which place 
civilised above savage man — which secure the triumph of intellect, 
and exalt genius and moral force over mere brutal strength, cour- 
age and numbers. 



226 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

Sir James Mackintosh says : 

It may be presumptuous in me to add anything in my own words 
to such just and exalted praise. Let me rather borrow the language 
in which the great father of modem philosophy, Lord Bacon him- 
self, has spoken of inventors in the arts of life. In a beautiful, 
though not very generally read fragment of his, called the New 
Atlantis, a voyage to an imaginary island, he has imagined a 
university, or rather royal society, under the name of Solomon's 
House, or the College of the Six Days' Works; and among the 
various buildings appropriated to this institution, he describes a 
gallery destined to contain the statues of inventors. He does not 
disdain to place in it not only the inventor of one of the greatest 
instruments of science, but the discoverer of the use of the silk- 
worm, and of other still more humble contrivances for the comfort 
of man. What place would Lord Bacon have assigned in such a 
gallery to the statue of Mr. Watt? Is it too much to say, that, 
considering the magnitude of the discoveries, the genius and science 
necessary to make them, and the benefits arising from them to the 
world, that statue must have been placed at the head of those of all 
inventors in all ages and nations. In another part of his writings 
the same great man illustrates the dignity of useful inventions by 
one of those happy allusions to the beautiful mythology of the 
ancients, which he often employs to illuminate as well as to deco- 
rate reason. "The dignity," says he, "of this end of endowment 
" of man's life with new commodity appeareth, by the estimation 
"that antiquity made of such as guided thereunto; for whereas 
" founders of states, lawgivers, extirpators of tyrants, fathers of the 
" people, were honored but with the titles of demigods, inventors 
" were ever consecrated amongst the gods themselves." 

The Earl of Aberdeen says: 

It would ill become me to attempt to add to the eulogy which you 
have already heard on the distinguished individual whose genius 
and talents we have met this day to acknowledge. That eulogy 
has been pronounced by those whose praises are well calculated 
to confer honor, even upon him whose name does honor to his 
country. I feel in common with them, although I can but ill 



INVENTOR AND DISCOVERER 227 

express that intense admiration which the bare recollection of 
those discoveries must excite, which have rendered us familiar with 
a power before nearly unknown, and which have taught us to wield, 
almost at will, perhaps the mightiest instrument ever intrusted 
to the hands of man. I feel, too, that in erecting a monument to 
his memory, placed, as it may be, among the memorials of kings, 
and heroes, and statesmen, and philosophers, that it will be then 
in its proper place; and most in its proper place, if in the midst of 
those who have been most distinguished by their usefulness to 
mankind, and by the spotless integrity of their lives. 

Lord Jeffrey says : 

This name fortunately needs no commemoration of ours; for 
he that bore it survived to see it crowned with undisputed and 
unenvied honors ; and many generations will probably pass away, 
before it shall have gathered "all its fame." We have said that 
Mr. Watt was the great improver of the steam engine; but, in truth, 
as to all that is admirable in its structure, or vast in its utility, he 
should rather be described as its inventor. It was by his inventions 
that its action was so regulated, as to make it capable of being 
applied to the finest and most delicate manufactures, and its power 
so increased, as to set weight and solidity at defiance. By his 
admirable contrivance, it has become a thing stupendous alike for 
its force and its flexibility, for the prodigious power which it can 
exert, and the ease, and precision, and ductility, with which it can 
be varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, 
that can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can 
engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it; draw 
out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship 
of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin and forge 
anchors, cut steel into ribbons, and impel loaded vessels against 
the fury of the winds and waves. 

It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits which 
these inventions have conferred upon this country. There is no 
branch of industry that has not been indebted to them; and, in all 
the most material, they have not only widened most magnificently 
the field of its exertions, but multiplied a thousandfold the amotmt 



228 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

of its productions. It is our improved steam engine that has fought 
the battles of Europe, and exalted and sustained, through the late 
tremendous contest, the political greatness of our land. It is the 
same great power which now enables us to pay the interest of our 
debt, and to maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still 
engaged (1819), with the skill and capital of countiies less oppressed 
with taxation. But these are poor and narrow views of its impor- 
tance. It has increased indefinitely the mass of human comforts 
and enjoyments, and rendered cheap and accessible, all over the 
world, the materials of wealth and prosperity. It has armed the 
feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which no limits can 
be assigned ; completed the dominion of mind over the most refrac- 
tory qualities of matter; and laid a sure foundation for all those 
future miracles of mechanical power which are to aid and reward 
the labors of after generations. It is to the genius of one man, 
too, that all this is mainly owing; and certainly no man ever 
bestowed such a gift on his kind. The blessing is not only univer- 
sal, but unbounded ; and the fabled inventors of the plough and the 
loom, who were deified by the erring gratitude of their rude con- 
temporaries, conferred less important benefits on mankind than 
the inventor of our present steam engine. 

This will be the fame of Watt with future generations; and it 
is sufficient for his race and his country. But to those to whom 
he more immediately belonged, who lived in his society and enjoyed 
his conversation, it is not, perhaps, the character in which he will 
be most frequently recalled — most deeply lamented — or even most 
highly admired. 

We shall end by quoting the greatest living authority, 
Lord Kelvin, now Lord Chancellor of Glasgow Uni- 
versity, which Watt and he have done so much to 
render famous: 

Precisely that single-acting, high-pressure, syringe-engine, made 
and experimented on by James Watt one hundred and forty years 
ago in his Glasgow College workshop, now in 1901, with the addition 
of a surface-condenser cooled by air to receive the waste steam, 



INVENTOR AND DISCOVERER 229 

and a pump to return the water thence to the boiler, constitutes 
the common-road motor, which, in the opinion of many good 
judges, is the most successful of all the different motors which 
have been made and tried within the last few years. Without a 
condenser, Watt's high-pressure, single-acting engine of 1761, only 
needs the cylinder-cover with piston-rod passing steam-tight 
through it (as introduced by Watt himself in subsequent develop- 
ments), and the valves proper for admitting steam on both sides 
of the piston and for working expansively, to make it the very 
engine, which, during the whole of the past century, has done 
practically all the steam work of the world, and is doing it still, 
except on the sea or lakes or rivers, where there is plenty of con- 
densing water. Even the double and triple and quadruple ex- 
pansion engines, by which the highest modem economy for power 
and steam engines has been obtained, are splendid mechanical 
developments of the principle of expansion, discovered and pub- 
lished by Watt, and used, though to a comparatively limited extent, 
in his own engines. 

Thus during the five years from 1761-66 Watt had worked out 
all the principles and invented all that was essential in the details 
for realising them in the most perfect steam engines of the present 
day. 

So passes Watt from view as the discoverer and 
inventor of the ''most powerful instrument in the 
hands of man to alter the face of the physical world." 
He takes his place " at the head of all inventors of all 
**ages and all nations." 



Watt, the Man 



CHAPTER XI 
Watt, the Man 

OF Watt, the genius, possessed of abilities far be- 
yond those of other men, a scientist and philoso- 
pher, a mechanician and a craftsman, one who gravi- 
tated without effort to the top of every society, and 
who, even when a young workman, made his workshop 
the meeting-place of the leaders of Glasgow Univer- 
sity for the interchange of views upon the highest and 
most abstruse subjects — ^with all this we have already 
dealt, but it is only part, and not the nobler part. He 
excelled all his fellows in knowledge, but there is much 
beyond mere knowledge in man. Strip Watt of all those 
commanding talents that brought him primacy without 
effort, for no man ever avoided precedence more per- 
sistently than he, and the question still remains : what 
manner of man was he, as man? Surely our readers 
would esteem the task but half done that revealed 
only what was imusual in Watt's head. What of his 
heart? is naturally asked. We hasten to record that 
in the domain of the personal graces and virtues, we 
have evidence of his excellence as copious and assured 
as for his pre-eminence in invention and discovery. 

We cite the testimony of those who knew him best. 

233 



234 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

It is seldom that a great man is so fortunate in his 
etilogists. The picture drawn of him by his friend, 
Lord Jeffrey, must rank as one of the finest ever pro- 
duced, as portrait and tribute combined. That it is a 
discriminating statement, altho so eulogistic, may well 
be accepted, since nimierous contributory proofs are 
given by others of Watt's personal characteristics. 
Says Lord Jeffrey : 

Independently of his great attainments in mechanics, Mr. 
Watt was an extraordinary, and in many respects a wonderftil 
man. Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much 
and such varied and exact information — had read so much, 
or remembered what he had read so accurately and well. He had 
infinite quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a 
certain rectifying and methodising power of understanding, which 
extracted something precious out of all that was presented to it. 
His stores of miscellaneous knowledge were immense, and yet less 
astonishing than the command he had at all times over them. It 
seemed as if every subject that was casually started in conversation 
with him, had been that which he had been last occupied in study- 
ing and exhausting; such was the copiousness, the precision, and 
the admirable clearness of the information which he poured out 
upon it without effort or hesitation. Nor was this promptitude and 
compass of knowledge confined in any degree to the studies con- 
nected with his ordinary pursuits. That he should have been 
minutely and extensively skilled in chemistry and the arts, and in 
most of the branches of physical science, might perhaps have been 
conjectured; but it could not have been inferred from his usual 
occupations, and probably is not generally known, that he was 
curiously learned in many branches of antiquity, metaphysics, 
medicine, and etymology, and perfectly at home in all the details 
of architecture, music and law. He was well acquainted, too, 
with most of the modern languages, and familiar with their most 
recent literature. Nor was it at all extraordinary to hear the great 



WATT, THE MAN 235 

mechanician and engineer detailing and expounding, for hours 
together, the metaphysical theories of the German logicians, or 
criticising the measures or the matter of the German poetry. 

His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great measure, 
by a still higher and rarer faculty — ^by his power of digesting and 
arranging in its proper place all the information he received, and 
of casting aside and rejecting, as it were instinctively, whatever 
was worthless or immaterial. Every conception that was suggested 
to his mind seemed instantly to take its place among its other rich 
furniture, and to be condensed into the smallest and most con- 
venient form. He never appeared, therefore, to be at all encum- 
bered or perplexed with the verbiage of the dull books he perused, or 
the idle talk to which he listened; but to have at once extracted, 
by a kind of intellectual alchemy, all that was worthy of attention, 
and to have reduced it, for his own use, to its true value and to its 
simplest form. And thus it often happened that a great deal more 
was learned from his brief and vigorous account of the theories 
and arguments of tedious writers, than an ordinary student could 
ever have derived from the most painful study of the originals, and 
that errors and absurdities became manifest from the mere clearness 
and plainness of his statement of them, which might have deluded 
and perplexed most of his hearers without that invaluable assistance. 

It is needless to say, that, with those vast resources, his con- 
versation was at all times rich and instructive in no ordinary degree; 
but it was, if possible, still more pleasing than wise, and had all 
the charms of familiarity, with all the substantial treasures of 
knowledge. No man could be more social in his spirit, less assum- 
ing or fastidious in his manners, or more kind and indulgent toward 
all who approached him. He rather liked to talk, at least in his 
latter years, but though he took a considerable share of the con- 
versation, he rarely suggested the topics on which it was to turn, 
but readily and quietly took up whatever was presented by those 
around him, and astonished the idle and barren propounders of an 
ordinary theme, by the treasures which he drew from the mine they 
had inconsciously opened. He generally seemed, indeed, to have 
no choice or predilection for one subject of discourse rather than 
another; but allowed his mind, like a great cyclopaedia, to be 



236 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

opened at any letter his associates might choose to turn up, and 
only endeavour to select, from his inexhaustible stores, what might 
be best adapted to the taste of his present hearers. As to their 
capacity he gave himself no trouble; and, indeed, such was his 
singular talent for making all things plain, clear, and intelligible, 
that scarcely any one could be aware of such a deficiency in his 
presence. His talk, too, though overflowing with information, 
had no resemblance to lecturing or solemn discoursing, but, on the 
contrary, was full of colloquial spirit and pleasantry. He had a 
certain quiet and grave humour, v/hich ran through most of his 
conversation, and a vein of temperate jocularity, which gave in- 
finite zest and effect to the condensed and inexhaustible information 
which formed its main staple and characteristic. There was a 
little air of affected testiness, and a tone of pretended rebuke and 
contradiction, with which he used to address his j^-ounger friends, 
that was always felt by them as an endearing mark of his kindness 
and familiarity, and prized accordingly, far beyond all the solemn 
compliments that ever proceeded from the lips of authority. His 
voice was deep and powerful, although he commonly spoke in a 
low and somewhat monotonous tone, which harmonised admirably 
with the weight and brevity of his observations, and set off to the 
greatest advantage the pleasant anecdotes, which he delivered with 
the same grave brow, and the same calm smile playing soberly on 
his lips. There was nothing of effort indeed, or impatience, any 
more than pride or levity, in his demeanour; and there was a finer 
expression of reposing strength, and mild self-possession in his 
manner, than we ever recollect to have met with in any other person. 
He had in his character the utmost abhorrence for all sorts of for- 
wardness, parade and pretensions; and, indeed, never failed to put 
all such impostures out of countenance, by the manly plainness and 
honest intrepidity of his language and deportment. 

In his temper and dispositions he was not only kind and affec- 
tionate, but generous, and considerate of the feelings of all around 
him; and gave the most liberal assistance and encouragement to all 
young persons who showed any indications of talent, or applied to 
him for patronage or advice. His health, which was delicate from 
his youth upwards, seemed to become firmer as he advanced in 



WATT, THE MAN 237 

years; and he preserved, up almost to the last moment of his exist- 
ence, not only the full command of his extraordinary intellect, but 
all the alacrity of spirit, and the social gaiety, which had illumined 
his happiest days. His friends in this part of the country never 
saw him more full of intellectual vigour and colloquial animation, 
never more delightful or more instructive, than in his last visit 
to Scotland in the autumn of 1817. Indeed, it was after that time 
that he applied himself, with all the ardour of early life, to the 
invention of a machine for mechanically copjdng all sorts of sculp- 
ture and statuary; and distributed among his friends some of its 
earliest performances, as the productions of a young artist just 
entering on his eighty-third year. 

All men of learning and science were his cordial friends ; and such 
was the influence of his mild character and perfect fairness and 
liberality, even upon the pretenders to these accomplishments, that 
he lived to disarm even envy itself, and died, we verily believe, 
without a single enemy. 

Professor Robison, the most intimate friend of 
his youth, records that : 

When to the superiority of knowledge in his own line, which 
every man confessed, there was joined the naive simplicity and 
candour of his character, it is no wonder that the attachment of 
his acquaintances was so strong. I have seen something of the 
world and I am obliged to say that I never saw such another in- 
stance of general and cordial attachment to a person whom all 
acknowledged to be their superior. But this superiority was con- 
cealed under the most amiable candour, and liberal allowance of 
merit to every man. Mr. Watt was the first to ascribe to the 
ingenuity of a friend things which were very often nothing but 
his own surmises followed out and embodied by another. I am 
well entitled to say this, and have often experienced it in my own 
case. 

This potent commander of the elements, this abridger of time 
and space, this magician, whose cloudy machinery has produced a 
change in the world, the effects of which, extraordinary as they 



238 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

are, are perhaps only now beginning to be felt — -was not only the 
most profound man of science, the most successful combiner of 
powers, and combiner of numbers, as adapted to practical purposes — 
was not only one of the most generally well-informed, but one of 
the best and kindest of human beings. There he stood, surrounded 
by the little band of northern literati, men not less tenacious, gen- 
erally speaking, of their own opinions, than the national regiments 
are supposed to be jealous of the high character they have won 
upon service. Methinks I yet see and hear what I shall never see 
or hear again. The alert, kind, benevolent old man had his atten- 
tion alive to every one's question, his information at every one's 
command. His talents and fancy overflowed on every subject. 
One gentleman was a deep philologist, he talked with him on the 
origin of the alphabet as if he had been coeval with Cadmus; an- 
other, a celebrated critic, you would have said the old man had 
studied political economy and belles lettres all his life; of science it 
is unnecessary to speak, it was his own distinguished walk. 

Lord Brougham says : 

We have been considering this eminent person as yet only in 
his public capacity, as a benefactor of mankind by his fertile genius 
and indomitable perseverance; and the best portraiture of his 
intellectual character was to be found in the description of his attain- 
ments. It is, however, proper to survey him also in private life. 
He was unexceptionable in all its relations; and as his activity 
was unmeasured, and his taste anything rather than fastidious, he 
both was master of every variety of knowledge, and was tolerant 
of discussion on subjects of very subordinate importance compared 
with those on which he most excelled. Not only all the sciences 
from the mathematics and astronomy, down to botany, received 
his diligent attention, but he was tolerably read in the lighter kinds 
of literature, delighting in poetry and other works of fiction, full 
of the stores of ancient literature, and readily giving himself up to 
the critical disquisitions of commentators, and to discussion on the 
fancies of etymology. His manners were most attractive from 
their perfect nature and simplicity. His conversation was rich in 
the measure which such stores and such easy taste might lead us 
to expect, and it astonished all listeners with its admirable precision, 



WATT, THE MAN 239 

with the extraordinary memory it displayed, with the distinctness 
it seemed to have, as if his mind had separate niches for keeping 
each particular, and with its complete rejection of all worthless and 
superfluous matter, as if the same mind had some fine machine for 
acting like a fan, casting ojff the chaff and the husk. But it had 
besides a peculiar charm from the pleasure he took in conveying 
information where he was peculiarly able to give it, and in joining 
with entire candor whatever discussion happened to arise. Even 
upon matters on which he was entitled to pronounce with absolute 
authority, he never laid down the law, but spoke like any other 
partaker of the conversation. I had the happiness of knowing Mr. 
Watt for many years, in the intercourse of private life; and I will 
take upon me to bear a testimony, in which all who had that gratifi- 
cation I am sure will join, that they who only knew his public merit, 
prodigious as that was, knew but half his worth. Those who were 
admitted to his society will readily allow that anything more pure, 
more candid, more simple, more scrupulously loving of justice, than 
the whole habits of his life and conversation proved him to be, was 
never known in society. 

The descriptions given by Lords Brougham, Jeffrey, 

the genial Sir Walter, and others, of Watt's universality 

of knowledge and his charm in discourse recall Canter- 
bury's exordium : 

Hear him but reason in divinity 

And, all-admiring, with an inward wish consumed. 

You would desire the king were made a prelate; 

Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, 

You would say — ^it hath been all in all his study: 

List his discourse of war, and you shall hear 

A fearful battle rendered you in music. 

Turn him to any cause of policy. 

The Gordian knot of it he will unloose 

Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks. 

The air, a chartered libertine, is still, 

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears 

To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences. 



240 LIFE OF JAMES WATT 

If Watt fell somewhat short of this, so no doubt did 
the king so greatly extolled, and much more so, 
probably, than the versatile Watt. 

Dr. Black, the discoverer of latent heat, upon his 
death-bed, hears that the Watt patent has been sus- 
tained, and is for the time restored again to interest 
in life. He whispers that he " could not help rejoicing 
"at anything that benefited Jamie Watt." 

The Earl of Liverpool, prime minister, stated that 
Watt was remarkable for 

the simplicity of his character, the modesty of his nature, the 
absence of anything like presumption and ostentation, the unwilling- 
ness to obtrude himself, not only upon the great and powerful, but 
even on those of the scientific world to which he belonged. A more 
excellent and amiable man in all the relations of life I believe never 
existed. 

There can be no question that we have for our 
example, in the man Watt, a nature cast in the finest 
mold, seemingly composed of every creattire's best. 
Transcendent as were his abilities as inventor and 
discoverer, we are persuaded that our readers will feel 
that his qualities as a man in all the relations of life 
were not less so, nor less worthy of record. His 
supreme abilities we can neither acquire nor emulate. 
These are individual and ended with him. But his 
virtues and charms as our fellow-man still shine steadily 
upon oiu: paths and will shine upon those of our suc- 
cessors for ages to come, we trust not without leading 
us and them to tread some part of the way toward 



WATT, THE MAN 241 

the acquisition of such qualities as enabled the friend 
of James Watt to declare his belief that "a more 
" excellent and amiable man in all the relations of life 
" never existed." A nobler tribute was never paid by 
man to man, yet was it not undeserved. 

So passes Jamie Watt, the man, from view — a man 
who attracted, delighted, impressed, instructed and 
made lifelong friends of his fellows, to a degree unsur- 
passed, perhaps imequalled. 

"His life was gentle, and the elements 
"So mixed in him that Nature might stand up 
"And say to all the world, 'This was a man."* 



wMTi «f lyuo 



1C0PY DEL. TO CAT. OIV. 

MAY 4 1905 



MAY 8 1905 



